Living Loud

Monthly archive: September, 2006

The Message of the Arrows

September 25, 2006, by Doug No comments yet

Time and time again I am drawn again to the book The Sacred Romance by John Eldredge and Brent Curtis. The very first time I read the book was at a point when God whispered to me, “you should read the book now, you are ready,” and God was right.

Apparently I’m always ready to read the book. It speaks volumes to my story, whether today, tomorrow, or in a few months. It probably always will.

So what is it about today? I think the psalmist, in Psalm 109, speaks for me when he prays:

Deal well with me for your name’s sake;
Out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.

For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me.

Help me, O Lord my God;
save me in accordance with your love.

Again, the message of the Arrows has said something to me. They have spoken and they have left wounds in my heart. If Curtis and Eldredge are right that only two things pierce our hearts, beauty and affliction, then my heart has certainly been pierced by affliction, wounds that have scarred.

Somehow, I know Jesus is there, ready to heal, ready to take me away into the Sacred Romance. I have experienced the story, and I have felt the love so warmly flowing from the Lord himself. Yet at times, those times when we can despair even for a day, God seems distant, unready and sometimes unwilling to heal our scars just yet. “A little more pain,” it feels like is being said, “and you will understand just a little more what I have for you.” And at this point we cry out and say, “God, no more, what is it that you have for me?” And God replies, “More grace, because that is what I want to give.”

Grace? Undeserved favor? Whatever for? What possibly could the Creator of my heart have in mind? The best answer I can muster is that the wounds were never meant to go away, but rather were meant to not affect who we are. Like a scar that will always remind us of the time we got stitches for goofing around as a child and bumping our chin, the wounds created by the message of the arrows seems too deep to “go away,” but rather point to a greater grace and champion the arrival of something even greater: beauty.

Doug

Doug Stuart is a committed follower of Jesus and passionate about building for the Kingdom of God through education and mobilization. He is a regular writer at LibertarianChristians.com as well as the founder of Living Loud.

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The Myth of a Christian Nation

September 5, 2006, by Doug No comments yet

Both Shiree and I love to browse the bookstores in search for something engaging to read. Whether it be politics, liberal-conservative dialogue, theology, or a fiction thriller, we never give up hope that there is a great book just waiting to be read.

About a month ago, we were browsing the bookstore and found a book by Greg Boyd called The Myth of a Christian NationThe operative definition of the word myth is “a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon”. I skimmed through the book while at the bookstore for about 10-15 minutes, realizing that the book would be worthwhile reading. He made some excellent points.

Fortunately, I saved myself about $20 because I realized that the book was based on a sermon series by Boyd, so I downloaded and listened to the sermons instead. The sermons are available for free download at his website.

While I don’t agree with everything Boyd says or believes elsewhere, the sermon series (which begins on April 18, 2004) is thought-provoking and based in the gospels, particularly Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. For the most part (thankfully), he doesn’t speak of specific political and moral issues, but rather to the crux of the matter: the role of Christians in the world.