Preface from the book
Sacred Intersections, by Steve Adams, Three Five Six Press 2102:
“In today's world, you don't have to look far to observe ways of
being that don't seem to be working. Many of us feel like our lives are
fragmented. Fear is often behind our decisions. Strained personal
relationships are all too common. Global economic pressures bring out
the worst in us. At a time when we need each other more, we seem to be
less available—and less and less humane. Hope and joy are on the wane
and cynicism on the rise, sadly evidenced by soaring drug abuse and
suicide rates, especially among the young.
Our political institutions aren't providing the answers. Neither,
would it seem, are our religious institutions. God is largely out of
the conversation except when it's convenient to use him as a political
pawn or for judgmental manipulation.
There is a way forward that can be different from all that. A way of
being that is restorative and relational. A way of being that can
reintegrate your life in connection with God, other people, and the
story
of creation. A way of being that will make your life more enjoyable and more meaningful.
Everyone has a story, and those stories are going on all around us,
all the time. Typically, we don't pay much attention to them. We don't
listen, don't inquire, don't appreciate. But what if we did? What if
every time our story intersected with another person's story, we used it
as an opportunity to enjoy that person and somehow enhance his or her
story? Sacred Intersections describes how doing so can enliven our
experience of God, add meaning to our lives, and make a difference in
the world around us.”
[www.sacredintersections.net]
Of course this notion resonates deeply with my own “storyteller’s
heart”. This book was given to me this Christmas by two friends (a
devoted couple) who know me well, probably all TOO well?! J Story is
infinitely, eternally important to me, and I believe to God as well?
I’m also a huge fan of the little book entitled
EPIC: the story God is telling and your part in it,
by John Eldredge, many of you have probably received this gift from
me? It is the stuff of the “rule” I try live by and coincidentally the
rule of the Community of Northumbria, (
Celtic Daily Prayer
folks), “Vulnerability & Availability”. To be “present to one
another in humility” is truly an art and a gift from God, the Triune
mysteriously beautiful relationship at the Center of the Universe.
This idea, this “holy notion” if you will, is also the stuff of being
a wounded healer (Nouwen), which I find so compelling in this broken
world we live in. To surrender all to God, then to follow in
submissiveness and humility wherever and to whomever He leads. To
become nothing, and yet to become His instrument of grace, mercy and
healing. Herein we discover the truth of Emmanuel, God with us, in the
form of the “man-god” Jesus Christ, Son of God, son of man, lowly and
meek yet all powerful. No big buildings, performances, mega-ministries
and egotistical shamans, but simple, humble disciples who practice the
intimacy of the One who came to save and heal souls. This is not an
easy task for us, it is costly (as Bonhoeffer says, and Willard
agrees.) But the “abundant life” Jesus promised leads down this path.
We must trust Him when He says, “My yoke is easy and My burden is
light.” It is in His strength that we live and have our being, and in
that strength we are conquerors, victorious beyond our wildest
imaginations. It will be necessary for many of us to look on darkness,
and when that happens it is important that it be robbed of its power to
frighten us. There are many kinds of darkness. The darkness of sin
should not surprise us, and when we confess it, and yield it to God, we
no longer need carry its guilt. The darkness of despair and of
unanswered questions (depression, suicide, horrible violence and more)
may require that we reach out and hold His hand in the darkness, even by
faith, and just keep on walking. And in all this too, we must reach
out and hold each other’s hands.
To quote our own beloved Young Life’s motto, “You were meant for this!”
da Moose
