We Have Met the Misfits and They is Us

I could probably give you a number of reasons why Brant Hansen shouldn’t have a book with W Publishing, an imprint of Thomas Nelson, let alone two books.¹ He’s not a pastor. Not a professor. Not someone who’s made it in the field of sports or business or entertainment and coincidentally happens to be a Christian.

He’s a radio announcer.

That’s it. But Blessed are the Misfits, his second major book release confirms what listeners to The Brant Hansen Show² and The Brant and Sherri Oddcast podcast³ have known all along: There’s a heck a lot of us out there who feel we just don’t fit in.

The subtitle of the book — which appears above the title, meaning it’s actually a surtitle⁴ — is Great News for Believers Who are Introverts, Spiritual Strugglers, or Just Feel Like They’re Missing Something.⁵ Insert deep breath here.

Brant not only sees himself as a misfit, but he’s even been diagnosed with a few things just to make it official. The radio show and podcast contain frequent announcements to new listeners that the show may take some time to figure out.⁶

Brant’s life story would make a book like this interesting enough; but the fact he also does the requisite research, includes Bible quotations and writes well simply adds to the appeal.

I see myself and others I know quite well in the pages of this book. People

• who are introverts
• who deal with social anxiety; mental health issues
• who are diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (or something similar)
• who feel they are failures
• who are lonely
• whose personality type is melancholy
• who feel they are just different; they don’t see the world like everyone else does

As I wrapped up the final pages of the book, I thought of a song recorded eons ago by The Altar Boys, a Christian band.

To all the hearts who have been broken;
To all the dreamers with abandoned dreams;
To everyone in need of a friend;
You are loved, You are loved.
To all the rebels wounded in battle;
To all the rockers that have lost that beat;
To all the users all used up now;
You are loved, You are loved.⁷

Henri Nouwen has called the capital-C Church “the community of the broken.”⁸ When you think of the misfits at your local church, take some time to also look in the mirror. I see myself repeatedly in these pages.⁹

Have you ever been to a concert only to find out that the performer is also an official representative of Compassion, Inc., or some other similar charity and you feel like you’ve been ambushed somehow?¹⁰ Brant is actually a spokesperson for CURE International; which means there are frequent references to CURE hospitals doing amazing things for kids whose situations looked hopeless.

Personally, I like my books to be books and my charity appeals to be charity appeals; but trust me, you wouldn’t want this book without the CURE stories.¹¹ They are a part of who Brant is, and therefore they deserve the space they get to act as mind-stretching illustrations of the points made in various chapters.

The solution to the problem? This is important because Brant is not speaking to solutions here so much as he’s saying to his fellow-misfits, “You’re not alone.” His personal revelations of classic awkwardness aren’t enumerated here as self-deprecation, but rather I see Brant in the pages of this book as a positive role model for people who feel they just don’t fit. There is very wide swath of people covered in this book. He comes alongside people who are hurting.

That we are also Christians makes the struggle all the more complex in one way, but our identification with Jesus also means that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses.”¹²

We need to remember that Jesus was a misfit, too.

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¹ Click here for my review of Unoffendable, click here for a sample segment.
² Link to Brant’s website. The show may have a different music mix in different markets.
³ Specific link to the podcast. Warning: Sherri’s laughter is infectious.
⁴ This is the type of distraction Brant lives for.
⁵ Spellcheck wants to change Strugglers to Stragglers which might work as well.
⁶ As true as this is, the part about “listener uniforms” should be taken with a grain of salt.
⁷ Listen to the song at this link.
⁸ I can’t prove this is an actual quotation, but Nouwen did say that we are all “wounded healers.”
⁹ The title of this review, We Have Met the Misfits and They is Us is a reference to the Pogo comic strip.
¹⁰ Like that time you’re friend invited you over for the evening, and it was actually an Amway meeting.
¹¹ Learn more at cure.org
¹² Hebrews 4:15 NIV
¹³ There is no corresponding sentence to this footnote. Brant actually only uses one footnote in the book and then in typical ADD fashion, abandons the form.

Thanks to Kimberley at HarperCollins Christian Publishing for an advance copy of Brant Hansen’s book.

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Review bonus: The Misfits Tour! (They should pay us for including this.)

Date	City	Info
11/27/17	West Palm Beach, FL	Journey Church
11/28/17	Vero Beach, FL	Christian FM
12/2/17	Hagerstown, MD	Word FM
1/4/18	Lynchburg, VA	The Journey
1/5/18	Louisville, KY	WAY FM
1/6/18	Cincinnati, OH	Star 93.3
1/11/18	Hazel Green, AL	WAY FM
1/12/18	Tallahassee, FL	WAY FM
1/13/18	Panama City, FL	WAY FM
1/18/18	Indianapolis, IN	Shine FM
1/19/18	Chicago, IL	Shine FM
1/20/18	Ft. Wayne, IN	Star
1/25/18	Riverside, CA	KSGN
1/26/18	Bakersfield, CA	KDUV
1/27/18	Visalia, CA	KDUV

By the way, does anyone else think it strange that an introvert wants to go on tour where everybody will be looking at him?