23 October 2007

Book Review: TrueFaced


I'm going to do something that I've never done before in a book review. Actually, I'm going to to do a couple of things I've never done, but the first thing I'm going to do is say:

Whatever you're reading right now, put it down. Get yourself a copy of TrueFaced and make it the very next book you read. Dallas Willard says, "TrueFaced is one of the best books on practical theology I have ever seen."

TrueFaced, by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and John Lynch, addresses the most basic motives faced by every follower of Jesus: the distinction between our determination to please God or to trust Him. Thrall and Co. draw on the metaphor of two rooms in our pursuit of God.

The first, at the end of a well-traveled road, is the Room of Good Intentions, entered by turning the knob of Effort. This room is filled to capacity with tired, cynical, well-intended Christians sporting various masks, who are determined to work on their sin to achieve an intimate relationship with God. These folks are sincerely determined to be godly. No one in this room is interested in hearing about your struggles, trials or failures. To be welcome here, one must hold their cards pretty close to their chest and give the appearance of sufficiency and that everything is fine. I'm fine, you're fine, we're all fine, fine, fine all the time, time, time.

The second room lies at the end of life's path with the motive of Trusting God. The path to this room is definitely less worn than the other. In this room, inhabitants have embraced the concept of Living Out of Who God Says I Am. To enter the Room of Grace, one only needs turn the doorknob of Humility. In this room, people have cried out, "Alright, listen! I'm not fine! I haven't been fine for a long time. I feel guilty, lonely and depressed. I'm sad most of the time and I can't make my life work. And if any of you knew half of my daily thoughts, you'd want me out of your little club. So there, I'm doing not fine! Thanks for asking!"
Instead of working on one's own sin to achieve intamacy with God, in this room, people stand with God, with their sin in front of them, working on it together with Him.

The goal of TrueFaced is to help us discover the freedom that lies in allowing ourselves to be authentic before God and others, trusting them with who we really are. A prayer one might pray before entering the Room of Grace might go something like this:
God, if anything good is to come out of this whole deal, you will have to do it. I can't. I'm so tired. Please God, you will have to give me the life I am dreaming of. I can't keep doing this anymore. I'm losing confidence that this life in you is even possible. Help me. You must make it happen or I am doomed.

We've all been part of a community, a church, or a small group where we've felt the pressure of presenting a strong, fine front. One where we don't have the freedom to share sin or failures; where we have to put on appearances and pretend we've got it all together. Sadly, these groups are far more common than the alternative. The effect is subtle, but grossly counterproductive to introducing people to the Kingdom of God. For reasons too numerous to count, Christians have fallen prey to the lie that we must appear fine, strong, good and often, productive. We don't want people to know we're flawed. I've said this before, however, that in my experience, my flaws and imperfections serve only to draw attention to the fact that I NEED a perfect father. Those that appear flawless, often draw perceptions that something's not entirely right, and make genuine, authentic connection near impossible.

One of the primary postures you must take when reading TrueFaced is to understand that this book is for YOU. Don't read it with others in mind. God can do precious little in establishing an intimate relationship with you if you're thinking of others while reading this book... that I can almost guarantee will, at times, feel like it's reading directly to you.

I mentioned that I was going to do a couple of things that I've not done before in a book review. The second is that I am going to follow my own suggestion and pick it up... again. I'm going to re-read TrueFaced with you. Do you have any of those books where you've worn a highlighter out reading it? This is one for me. This is the kind of book that I could read over and over again. I want to so thoroughly grasp the concept of a truly trusting, grace-filled relationship with the Father, that I will read, read and re-read this one for years to come. I hope you get the same from it that I do.

8 October 2007

The Week in Review

Wow, what a week! This entry is going to be all over the place as so many different things are happening in so many different arenas.

First of all, Grandmother McKenzie is here in Glasgow offering her help and support... but really just soaking up precious time with her granddaughters. She arrived just in time for Gabrielle's 2nd birthday. That's right... we have a terrible-two (year-old) and she had a cracking good birthday. On a day that called for rain, we stayed dry as Gabrielle and friends enjoyed a party at the park. Friends from church, toddler's group and the neighborhood joined the celebration of her birth. Mommy made lots of yummy sandwiches and chocolate truffles and... (get ready for it) daddy made the cake!!! It may not have been quite the extravaganza that her 1st birthday was (60+ people in our little flat), but it was loads of fun, nonetheless.

You may also remember an entry I posted over a month ago about our friend Sally, the woman who was struggling with the prospect of losing custody of her son, Nathan. When I spoke to Sally I prayed with her that day and then told her that I would continue to do so until we saw each other again. Last week Jasheen and I were out on date-night and we were strolling on one of our favorite little streets in Glasgow (Ashton Lane), when we bumped in to none other than Sally. Upon recognizing us, the first thing out of her mouth was, "Are you still praying for me?" We told Sally that we were and then she tearfully shared how things were going. We asked Sally to come to church with us the next day just to get around some people that could genuinely care for her and perhaps pray for her circumstances. She did... and she really enjoyed it. She was immediately welcomed and embraced and within moments of arriving was in the middle of a prayer circle. What a blessing and answer to prayer! Not only is Sally enthusiastic about coming back, but she's also going to get involved in our monthly river clean-up of the Kelvin River through FORK (Friends Of the River Kelvin).

Which leads nicely into this next segment. FORK is a small way for our church to both connect with and appreciate God's creation, as well as forge relationships within the community with like-minded people. Because we believe that God made the world, loves it, and entrusts it to the care of the human society, we as a church through this missional expression are eager to support care for creation. One of the things we're trying to do as leaders is cultivate active participants in the Christian community. It's so easy to fall prey to a consumer mindset and become content attending church as passive observers (I know I've slipped into that from time-to-time), but we want the Christian community to be vibrantly active in engaging the culture around us. FORK is one way that we, as a collective, can do that. Gabrielle and I have been going on Saturdays and have thoroughly enjoyed it. In addition to countless bags of rubbish, we also extract the likes of partially submerged shopping carts and car tires. This past week Gabrielle enjoyed her time with friend, Sophia Kurtyka. Getting dirty can be pretty fun... even for a couple of dainty little girls.

As you can read in my previous blog entry, CATWALK continues to blossom as November 13th draws near. In addition to sponsorship, CATWALK is already receiving media exposure as Scottish newspaper, The Herald, ran two related articles in last Wednesday's paper. By 9:00am on the day the articles hit news stands, phone call orders for tickets began coming in. Jasheen picked up the promotional posters yesterday, but they will only serve as publicity now as there are only 32 tickets left for purchase. AMAZING! Almost 270 tickets have sold for the event before advertising has begun. The things that have come together for this event are nothing short of miraculous.

Possibly the most abstract and bizarre event currently going on with our family involves Gabrielle. I'm acquainted with a local casting agent (Gail) that deals mostly in modeling and television. Upon seeing pictures of Gabrielle earlier this week, she has cast her in a local television program called River City that shoots here in Glasgow. Following in the footsteps of her Uncle Patch, Gabrielle will be throwing her hat into the acting ring and making her small screen debut in River City's Christmas episode as one of the children going to sit on Santa's knee. That is... if she doesn't take one look at Santa, scream and run off the set. When dealing with two-year-old actors, you never know what you're going to get. Gabrielle and I ran into Gail this afternoon and after seeing Gaby in person, Gail stated with excitement, "I'm going to make a star out of you. You're good enough to eat!"

Please pray for grandmother's health during the next two weeks that she's here. She has been battling a pretty bad cough, fever and sinus infection. She came to offer assistance to us, and feels awful that she hasn't had the energy to do as much as she would like. We love her all the same and she probably has no idea how much assistance her mere presence provides. We do want her to thoroughly enjoy her time with the girls though. These are precious seasons for grandparents and we want her to enjoy every minute of it.

To see more photos of Gabrielle's birthday, grandmother's visit or FORK clean-up, you can go to our flickr site by clicking on the Photo Album link in our LINKS section to the left of this entry - or just click here.