Pride & Seek

“Losing identity is one of the scariest events that can happen to a person. Especially when your identity isn’t just lost, but stolen,” (page 25). Ordinary boy, normal family . . . or was he? Were they? Pride & Seek is the story of Seth J Pierce, an Adventist pastor’s kid, thrown into turmoil when his parents divorced. This is certainly no ordinary story as Pierce takes your hand and walks you through his personal and spiritual journey back to the truth.
Belonging and fitting in became Pierce’s sole purpose as he left primary school and stepped into a 2500-student public school. As he slipped into the vast numbers of students, Pierce entered the world of heavy metal, guitar playing and girls. As his life grew darker, so did his thoughts and his view of self—he was lost.
“I don’t remember just when I lost my relationship with God, but I know it disappeared as soon as I started filling my heart with more earthly desires than heavenly ones. Money, women, and fame were at the constant forefront of my thoughts—and I was only 14,” says Pierce (page 31). He was no longer a happy PK doing his best to make his parents proud; he was a prideful and insecure young man desperate to find meaning and purpose.
Pride & Seek is a spiritually challenging and influential devotional as Seth meets a young lady who introduces him to her church, a local charismatic church. Having lost his Seventh-day Adventist identity (or so he thought), Seth was only interested in attending church to make his girlfriend happy, saying, “I was too spiritually blind to see that I had a spiritual problem” (page 42). From the moment he stepped foot in The Rock, his journey to truth, belonging and accepting God’s love began.
Truly challenging, Pierce acknowledges that “because He loves us and doesn’t want us to be lost, God will go out of His way and use unorthodox methods to get our attention” (page 44) and so He did as Pierce sunk deeper into the world of the charismatic church. Slowly moving from not being able to raise his hands above handshaking level during the praise music to speaking in tongues, Pierce grew more uneasy with the doctrine and lifestyle of the leaders and church.
As Pierce opens his heart and shares his awesome spiritual journey back to the Adventist church, he challenges the reader to ask deep and personal questions, “Do I know Jesus?” (page 57), “What motivates you to follow God?” (page 67), “How do you stand out from how other Christians act, speak, or think?” (page 100), and “Are we ready to serve God with a ready spirit? Are we ready to bless ministry in all its forms and know that God will bring the harvest?” (page 113). There will be no doubt in your mind that Pierce is passionate about God, prayer, the Holy Spirit and young people. Having experienced incredible ministry, preaching and passion, Pierce challenges that the bar should be raised, challenging young Adventists to take up ministry in every aspect of their lives and be “peculiar” in a world where false doctrine is rampant throughout Christianity.
“My heart knew the truth, and although I had stifled conviction, smashed down my beliefs, or jumped up and down on what I had been taught, it kept popping up. I wanted to go on a vacation from the truth, but some force wouldn’t let me pack,” (page 161). As Pierce finds his way back to his spiritual roots, the reader will ask the same questions, looking deep at their own pride and truly seeking God and His desire for their life.

Pride & Seek
Seth J Pierce
Review and Herald 2005
203 pages