Review: I Am Restored: How I Lost My Religion but Found My Faith

I Am Restored: How I Lost My Religion but Found My Faith

By Lecrae Moore (Zondervan)

Lecrae Moore—known as Lecrae (luh-KRAY’)—is a Grammy Award-winning Christian hip hop artist also popular in mainstream hip hop. He also is the co-owner and co-founder of Reach Records.

In I Am Restored, Lecrae’s second book, he discusses his past and trauma he experienced in his childhood. He talks about being sexually and physically abused, being fatherless and struggling with alcohol. He also shares how his past started to come out in poor choices and a crisis of faith.

The book has three parts. The first two parts focus on Lecrae’s “chaos”—his battle with himself, his battle with his critics, and his battle with the larger society. He describes the difficulty of being a celebrity and the extra pressure of people thinking he had everything together.

In Part Three, Lecrae focuses on hope in the middle of chaos. Here, he points readers past their pain by talking through his own and explaining even public figures experience normal human problems.

His experiences and his strength to be able to share them with the public will help others struggling with anxiety, depression and maintaining faith. We need more courageous people like Lecrae to be honest about their problems.

I appreciate that Lecrae didn’t just list his problems and then say, “Well, now I’m fine.” Instead, he describes how he found faith and hope.

At just 170 pages and with large print, the book is a quick read.

The first chapter may be difficult for those with past trauma to read because of Lecrae’s descriptions of his experiences. If readers need to skip that chapter, they can pick up his story in Chapter Two, though he does make a reference to his past there.

I Am Restored is an inspirational book that will uplift and inspire many readers.