Just imagine how overwhelmed William Wordsworth would be if he were dropped into our fast-paced, materialistic society. His words ring truer today than they did 200 years ago:

The world is too much with us; late and soon
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers

Thankfully, Richard Eyre has literally turned our world upside down and shone a spotlight on the madness. Reading his new book, The Three Deceivers, is like slowly waking up and realizing there is a better path, a way to see your life in a more spiritual dimension.

The adversary is not called the “Arch Deceiver” for nothing. He has taken three relatively harmless attitudes, dressed them up in gilt and glitter as the ultimate destination and sold them as absolute truths. We now find ourselves desperately seeking to gain more control, to acquire more and more “stuff” and to become utterly independent. Control. Ownership. Independence . Taken to extremes, these attitudes have become false gods.

Eyre takes these three deceivers and exposes the Babylon model behind them. With a bottle of spiritual Windex and a sturdy cloth, Eyre has rubbed a clear spot in the Apostle Paul's glass that we see through darkly.

The Three Deceivers is printed with the second half (with the solution!) upside down.

It might be very tempting to skip the first part, turn the book upside down and quickly to read what his three alternatives are. I would caution against this. You need to thoroughly understand how three pretty good attitudes have been masterfully twisted to subtly veer us off the straight and narrow.

Do we need to control our passions and our checkbooks? Indeed we do! But control taken too far puts us in the driver's seat instead of God. We end up parroting Satan's five “I will!” statements (Isaiah 14:12-14) showing a wicked divergence from the Father's will.

Is the bumper sticker true that states, “He who dies with the most toys wins”? Satan would have us believe that and spend our lives chasing bigger houses, fancier cars, the right labels on our clothing.

Reading the first half of Eyre's book is literally eye-opening and will make our economic downturn much easier to bear. What is it that really counts here on Earth?

When you've read the first half of The Three Deceivers, you will have been asked what would you suggest for the Three Alternatives. Eyre asked this question of his readers of the online LDS Meridian Magazine. “Faith, Hope and Charity” was the overwhelming choice but Eyre comes up with three, 11-letter “S” words, one of which he coined.

He writes that his criteria for Three Alternatives are:

Some readers guessed one or more of the Alternatives. The replacement for control is happily surprising: “God-reliant Serendipity.” If you've ever “let go and let God” and watched Him perform quiet miracles in your life, then this Alternative will be joyously sensible to you. Many of us have learned how wonderful it is to quietly turn over our lives and see what God can do with them when He is at the helm.

Eyre's definition of serendipity is so spot on! He writes that it is a “ state of mind and spirit wherein we strive for an awareness of God's blessings and of His will. As we go about our lives and seek our goals, we try to notice all that is around us and inside us, happy for the adventure and spontaneity of life. We are willing to take detours and departures from our plans as we see opportunities to please Him, to receive His gifts, and to turn control of our lives over to Him.”

That little taste of Eyre's first Alternative for heading toward Zion instead of Babylon hopefully will whet your appetite to discover the other Alternatives and see for yourself the inherent wisdom of this book.

The times we are headed into are going to be more challenging than any of us ever dreamed. As you read this book, you will feel the lifting of a weight you didn't realize you were bearing. I believe Eyre has sketched out a true guidebook that will reveal the joy of the journey ahead, once we have shaken off deception and embraced God's will for our lives.