Jon Plunkett’s mission is simple and clear: to “encourage more people to get out and meet with God amidst His natural creation.� It is nature that provides us with evidence of a loving Creator, one who yearns to meet with us as much as we need to meet with him. Plunkett admits that putting his experiences into words amidst such divinely made beauty is hardly satisfactory. However, nearly every chapter starts with a detailed sketch of such an occurrence that allows the reader to vicariously experience nature through the author’s past adventures. Whether the reader is an avid outdoorsman or a Playstation 2 addict, Hear His Call has the potential to draw the audience away from the distractions of the 21st century, and into the countryside where God so often meets us.

The book ends where the author’s experience began. The last few chapters detail the transformational power that Plunkett himself first encountered in the depths of nature. Plunkett, like many, has always loved the outdoors, but it wasn’t until God used the outdoors to increase his “heart knowledge� that he became so passionate about telling others to do the same. As Plunkett continually asserts throughout the book, a call to return to nature to hear God’s voice is truly a “call for all.�

Somewhere, Charles Sheldon is smiling…and cringing. In classic WWJD form, Hear His Call raises an index finger and points back to Jesus’ own spiritual discipline as a testament to the influence of adventure and solitude in nature. It is Jesus who we see withdrawing to wild places to rest, pray, and meet with the Father. He set the example (and as Plunkett reminds us, the Bible seems to point out that Jesus did that often “as was his custom.â€?). There is a missional aspect to Jesus’ alone time with the Fatherâ€"an aspect that the book lacks. The power that solitude brought to Jesus was often expended on the people he encountered soon there after, allowing him to meet the spiritual and physical needs of so many. This reviewer, with Sheldon’s social gospel in mind, would prefer more of this dialogue in the future to come. What does praying in solitude and nature-hikes have to do with community and others’ needs? There’s a further connection here that needs to be explored. “What Would Jesus Doâ€? is a great slogan to use, but only if it exhausts ourselves for others.

To the author’s defense, there is no advancement of life-boat theology in the bookâ€"the idea that the world is going to hell and we better just bail out to the woods and hold on for dear life. Instead, Plunkett insists the call of God to the outdoors is not a call of “escapism.â€? The call comes not out of selfish pursuits, but out of the very nature and knowledge of God. We all need time set apart to specifically meet with God, and why not do it in the beauty of his handiwork? Many of us struggle with finding such a set time to encounter God’s presence; an ironic case considering most of our lives has been sold-out to convenience. In a world where convenience has become the selling point of all, we need to “slow it all down and recognize the importance of stillness in our lives. We need to allow our senses time to really enjoy what we have.â€?

The chapter entitled “Layers� is one of Plunkett’s best, both in content of thought and quality of writing. He basically takes Plato’s Cave allegory, throws in a canopy of trees rather than a cave, and applies it to living life before experiencing God’s creation. Until we’ve experienced the call of God in the wilderness, we only see our suburban streets, our Starbucks lattes, and our fast-food world and assume that it is the ultimate reality. There are layers in our world: the first layer being God, the second being physical reality, and the third being society. When sin entered the picture, the layers became separated. Page 99 contains the gospel story in one paragraph and reveals how we have hidden the “real world� of God’s presence behind our 21st century convenient lifestyles. But just like Plato’s philosophy, those that manage to climb out of the suburban jungle into the real woods will only be able to describe the sights to a degree. All descriptions fall short until it is actually experienced firsthand. We all must experience the call personally.

Not all chapters flow so easily, however. “See, Hear, Smell, Taste, Feel…Know� is an exciting title to a rather dull section. The author attempts to locate the use of the five in the face of a divine encounter outside of the cities and streets we have grown accustomed to. Most sections strayed from this original thesis of the chapter. One gets the sense that this chapter was just “thrown in� for good measure, rather than being calculated and incorporated into the whole work. It is indeed true that we can “feel� God in life, but the author does not give enough detail on how this happens in creation. Instead, the reader will find themselves on an anatomy lesson about the human ear, eye, etc… The chapter has more turns than a closed circuit NASCAR track, and gets about just as far.

Hear His Call is about realizing that the physical landscape and the spiritual world can connect and collide in an extraordinarily tangible way. If you are looking for an intense, philosophical look at nature as it relates to the divine, steer yourself more towards a Thomas Merton or an old-school monk like St. Anthony of the Desert. But, if you are interested in taking the first steps towards hearing God’s call outside of the every day monotonous lifestyle, if you are at all inclined to take a hiking trip in the great outdoors and want to know if God has anything to say to you, take a gander at Jon Plunkett’s writing. It is not a book with the most eloquent writing, the most thought out chapters, or the clearest theses, but it is a piece that cannot be dismissed on the grounds of grammar or script skill. Be forewarned, if you pick up the book, “Leave agendas and goals behind…set out to meet with God. That should be your expectation and it should grow with every step you take away from the towns and cities.�

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