Andrew Smith's Blog

My name is Andrew. Come and have a look inside my life and watch me share what is on my heart.

Chivalry: The Quest for a Personal Code of Honor in an Unjust World By Zach Hunter Book Review



Chivalry is written in the concept of ten principles that is based on how the ancient knights conducted their life. Zach Hunter explained that when he is discussing the word chivalry in this book, he isn’t talking about how guys are supposed to treat girls. The code of chivalry is for male and female and is meant to be applied and live out where we can see a greater impact for Christ’s kingdom.  

The second code in the book is entitled, “I will never attack from behind”. Backstabbing, gossiping, and criticizing others seems to becoming more and more acceptable in our cultures. Zach stated that in ancient times, knights would only attack someone else and fight back if they were in fact being attacked by an enemy first. He goes on to declare that we should always be loyal to our friends and never share personal secrets that people have shared to us. If someone trusts us with things that they are going through then we should be committed to being a true friend. Jesus always loved others and like him we’re called to do the same. An essential lesson in this chapter was with the changing times and technology, Zach encouraged readers to have important conversations face to face. For some examples, if we are wanting to break up with someone, ask someone out on a date, or you need to converse something personal, plan a time to meet to or do it on the phone voice to voice.  


One of my favorite codes was, “I will honor truth and always keep my promises”. This one really stressed the significance of being honest and when we promise that we will do something then we must try our very best to follow through. Zach Hunter shared a personal story in this chapter about when his family moved from Georgia back to Colorado during the winter break in his senior year. He decided to spend the extra amount of time in introducing himself to every single classmate in all of his classes. He began to meet a girl outside of school for coffee regularly and they began to become friends. He knew that she saw her only worth and value in her appearance. Zach eventually began to fall for her and he decided to ask her to go to prom with him. She stated that she would love to go with him and he was really looking forward to the big night. A few weeks later at a concert, he received a devastating text from her that regrettably professed, “I’m so sorry, but I can’t go to prom with you. I already promised someone else I would go with them a year ago plus I made other plans with friends… I’m sorry but I can’t go to prom with you” (Page 96). He called her the next day and she blamed it on her friends. She stated that they all agreed to all go without dates and she had broken that friendship rule. Funny how she kept her “promise” with her friends but not with Zach and her story kept changed dramatically. He later deliberated what happened to his friend that he had grown up with and he acted like he truly cared about what Zach was going through. When prom finally arrived, Zach decided not to go to prom but made the mistake of checking Facebook and he saw that his friend went with the girl. He later found out the truth and that his friend went to school with a bouquet of flowers and got on a blended knee and asked her to prom, and shocking she agreed! Zach, I thought was very genuine and he described how he had always struggled with low self-esteem. He shared this story to explain to readers that being honest and speaking the truth in love is what God has commanded us to do. I really connected with this story because like Zach I have went through some bad dating experiences, let’s just say they could be country songs. I have seen people lie and try and play with my emotions in order to feel in control. I even had one girl that I went on a date with lie about how much money she was inheriting from their grandmother death and the amount kept magically increasing each time. Honest and telling the truth is something the world is beginning to lack. Being honest is beginning to be an enormous quality that I find attractive in a woman and it’s a character trait that I want to display to be the man, husband, and father he is calling me to be. Zach Hunter recently has gotten married so there is hope for me yet.


I would recommend this remarkable book on chivalry, especially to teenagers and college students because it’s more geared to that age group. But many adults would still benefit from absorbing the ten codes of chivalry and applying them to their daily life. I immensely enjoyed the ten principles presented in this book on chivalry and living how Christ has called us to live. The ten codes of chivalry are not easy to live out and many times we will fail but we have to keep trying to be transformed into the image of Christ. Some of my favorite life changing codes were, “I will never abandon my quest, I will fear no evil, I will fight only for the sake of those who are unable to defend themselves, or in the dense of justice, and I will honor true and always keep my promises”. I really loved the last section of the book called, “Onward Living the Code” because it contained numerous questions and a reminder of what each code of honor encompasses. The book enclosed many personal stories about Zach, a vast number of scripture verses, thoughts from a few of his friends about different chivalry core points, and countless examples from historical speakers and everyday people. The book has the powerful force to influence our generation with following the ten codes of honor and it will prominently benefit readers into living their full purpose in life.  

 

Tyndale House Publishers/ Tyndale Momentum has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.

 

If you would like to purchase a copy of Chivalry check it out on Amazon.com:

 


 

Check out the Book Trailer:


 



Zach Hunter discussing Chivalry:


 

0 comments:

Post a Comment