Plant Water Grow

Of all the autobiographies I've ever read (hundreds over the years--I'm old) this may be the most honest and revealing. Such books usually cover positive events designed to highlight the achievements and greatness of the author. In this case, Ian Gold [Former NFL Pro Bowl Linebacker] reveals his weaknesses, indiscretions, and flaws. After all, how many authors discuss paying prostitutes, child abuse charges, and neglecting family while pursuing women for casual sex, or soliciting one woman while literally being with another? How many reveal trying to bribe a woman to have an abortion?

Yet all these stories⎯and many more⎯demonstrate why Gold tells readers he does not judge them. Unlike the feeding frenzy done by the media each time a celebrity stumbles, Gold knows we all have our shameful secrets. He lays his out in such a direct and intimate way that we feel permission to admit our own⎯if not to the world as he does⎯at least to ourselves. Similarly, Gold goes into his painful childhood including incidents when he would lye in bed listening to his mom being abused. Feeling powerless, unloved, and full of insecurity, he captures how we have all felt at times.

The story, nevertheless, is ultimately an uplifting one as Gold discovers a peace not from the fame and fortune of his athletic prowess⎯indeed this often fueled his negative traits and pain. Instead, he finds it in his faith. A Faith that does not judge, but reveals in his life the unconditional love found in Christ. We see how Gold profits by reversing the question asked by Jesus in the eighth chapter of Mark, verse thirty-six: Gold gains his own soul by losing the whole world.

In "Plant Water Grow", we get an insight into how one lonely, insecure child found redemption and Gold shows the path to consider, for us as well. Without judgment. Only love. -Khurum Sheikh