Most of us feel fundamentally fatherless.

Now if you saw that question, what would you think?

Would you think, like me, here is an American trying to sell a book that over-thinks a whole bunch of things that are not normally issues?

As a men's group, we've worked our way through John Eldredge's Fathered by God which had some good parts (the section on spiritual warfare was particularly good, and I benefited much from it). However it starts from the premise of the title above, and frequently goes downhill from there.

We are now working our way through the companion book - the 'personal and small group map for your masculine journey' - and I'm finding it harder and harder to take it seriously.

We also come from a different perspective on reality. For JE, it's as if the struggles, failures and frustrations of life are fundamentally wrong, and would disappear if we were really fathered by God. For me, many of them are there BECAUSE I'm fathered by God, and they are for my strengthening and training. I suppose as much as anything, the mixture of hand-wringing 'I want my daddy' and references to Hollywood kitsch just don't mean anything and have really got on my nerves.

Tomorrow I'm leading the group through this for the last time before we break for summer. I'll miss the guys a little (love Saturday mornings in bed with my wife!) but not the book.