"Why do the leaders of the church always have to tell us what to do?" eighteen-year-old Gary Grandon asked his circle of friends. "We're all Christians, and I don't know why we can't think some things through for ourselves."

Gary was a member of the Stone Hill Mennonite Church, and all his life he had been taught to submit to and respect church authority. But when that church authority touched his car, his cell phone, his clothes, his work boots—weren't the church leaders going too far? After all, Gary was a Christian too. Why couldn't he decide some things for himself?

In many areas, Gary conformed outwardly to what was expected of him, but his stubborn willfulness continued inside—until the hand of a merciful God brought him face to face with the real state of his relationship with God.