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Call me a
nerd, but to me, there’s nothing quite like a good book! I could spend hours
reading and typically, I have 2-5 books going at one time. And every so often,
a book comes along that is worth sharing with others. Recently, an old friend
of mine from Camp Good News wrote a book. He’s written a few now, but this time
he opened it up to Facebook friends to read and review it and I jumped on it.
Now, the deal was, I could get an un-edited copy to read and then I was
supposed to give a little review around the time it came out…It was released
Nov. 26, so 2 weeks later is still “around” that time, right?! Yes, as usual, I
am late. But, better late than never…
Risky
Gospel, by Owen Strachan, is chock full of the ingredients it takes to make
a good book on Christian living: personal stories, biblical text, humor and
applicability (did I just make up a word?) I’ll be honest, going into it I
thought it might be over my head – a deep theology text, which is not my kind
of reading. Even as a teenager, Owen was a deep-thinker. He’s well-educated,
intelligent and articulate. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to follow, much less
relate. But this book is for people of all walks of life and all stages of
their journey with the Lord.
No matter
who we are, life often feels very busy – sometimes overwhelming. We don’t want
to settle for mediocre, but we do and for a hundred different reasons. And life
gets hard. I think there’s a part of all of us that just wants things to be
easy. But, as Owen points out, the Christian life wasn’t made to be an easy,
put-your-head-down-and-get-through-the-day kind of life. We were made for more –
so much more! But, that doesn’t mean life will be easy. In fact, many verses
paint the opposite picture and Owen doesn’t try to hide that fact. “You follow
God and you just might get asked to walk in the wilderness. For forty years.”
(pg. 34) That sounds scary to some and causes us to hold back, it keeps us
living in mediocre-land. To step out of
that and live out the risky Gospel, we have to first understand who God is and
realize our identity as His child. In chapter 3, Owen does a phenomenal job of
pointing out the need to understand who we are in Christ and he does so by
pulling out Scripture to encourage us in embracing our identity. As we do that,
we gain purpose and confidence. We begin to see that no matter our station in
life, we can grow, we can bring glory to God. Once we understand our identity,
Owen reminds us of the importance of building our faith and gives us practical
ways to do that. Then he points out something most books seem to ignore: that
we will fail. We will get frustrated with ourselves and our experiences. But
the story doesn’t end there – we have hope because of this risky Gospel living
in us. Too many authors today give us these ways to be better Christians and
then when we don’t live up to it, we feel guilty, ashamed and drowning in
despair. I love that Owen is honest about the human condition, his own
included, and the redemption found in Jesus.
The next few
chapters are spent showing us how we can bring glory to God in a variety of
ways: by building a legacy, a vocation, a godly community, an evangelistic
outreach and public witness. I loved that each of these chapters focused on the
importance of these areas of our lives and give the reader practical ways to
grow. Being encouraged to invest in your family and see spouses and children as
great blessings is refreshing. Hearing that God cares more about your heart and
your service than your title and paycheck is always encouraging, especially in
a world so focused on the latter. And even in Christian circles, we chalk
spiritual “success” up to how involved we are in ministry and whether it is
vocational or not. While being in ministry is wonderful, it doesn’t necessarily
determine how Christ-like one is. God has lots of us in lots of different
places in life because that’s where He can use us best or grow us more like
Him. And in a day and age of “church shopping” it’s good to be challenged to
commit to a godly community. Many people today have a bad taste in their mouth
when it comes to church, usually because of a bad experience (or a bunch!) or
people who have been hurt. But the reality is, we NEED each other – in the good
AND the bad. That’s challenging to read, but oh so good, too! Owen gives great
(and often overlooked) ideas for how to serve other believers. The same week I
read that chapter, I had an opportunity to help out with something at our new
church. I didn’t want to go. It was our night off, we go to a large church and
I don’t know anyone…the excuses went on. But then God reminded me how much I
need to be connected to a local body of believers. So, I went. And nothing huge
happened, but it was an opportunity to serve and meet people. We need that,
even when we think we don’t. Owen mentioned the story of Rosaria Champagne
Butterfield in this chapter. If you’ve never heard of her or read her book, you
should! But, that’s for another day…
Probably the
most difficult chapters for me were the ones on evangelistic witness and public
witness. Like many people, I’d rather keep my head down and be out of the
spotlight. I don’t like to ruffle feathers AT. ALL. I try to be super sensitive
about not offending people (I’m sure I offend people more than I think, but I
do try not to!) And while we shouldn’t be out trying to offend people and make
enemies, the reality is, the Gospel is offensive. People are going to get upset
and relationships may be severed. And that’s where I struggle. And yet again,
as is true throughout the rest of the book, Owen breaks it down to show us ways
to step out in faith and obedience – makes it seem doable. And of course, it is
because of the power of Christ in us. So, while I didn’t “like” these chapters,
it wasn’t because anything Owen said was incorrect – it was because the truth
hurts! And a book like this wouldn’t be good if it didn’t challenge you.
The book
ends with a challenge to Christians to live out this risky Gospel,
understanding that the risk is really minimal when we serve a great big God.
From our earthly standpoint, it seems scary, but God knows all the days of our
lives and what will bring Him the most glory. It may mean we face all sorts of
trials, big and small. Only God knows. But, as Owen writes, “if we’re pursuing
Christ wholeheartedly through a life of gospel risk, here’s the awesome truth:
there really is no such thing as failure.” (pg. 215) There’s no “you’re doing
it wrong.” And that does not sound risky at all. In fact, the thought is quite
comforting.
So, even
though I’ve written a novel of my own, there’s still a lot of good stuff left
to explore. If you get a chance, pick up a copy. I’m pretty sure it’ll be under
the tree this Christmas for some of my loved ones! J
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