By John B. Hayes
I am finally getting back into my reading groove this week! It feels good. I just finished Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading by Eugene Peterson. This book definitely makes one of my top recent reads. Peterson says, “Eating a book takes it all in, assimilating it into the tissues of our lives. Readers become what they read. If Holy Scripture is to be something other then mere gossip about God, it must be internalized…assimilated into our nerves and muscles and put to work in speech and action.” The book includes some great stuff on the practice of Lectio Divina and also the role of Scripture translations, including the story behind Peterson's translation, The Message.
Today I picked up the book Sub-Merge and couldn't put it down. John Hayes is the general director of InnerCHANGE, an incarnational order among the poor. The ministry shares God's heartbeat for the poor and is similar to Word Made Flesh. I was blessed to spend some time with John and Deanna Hayes about 15 years ago, when they were living and serving in a Cambodian neighborhood in Long Beach. Looking back, I see just how the relationships in that Cambodian apartment complex were an important beginning in all God was forming and shaping in my heart and life.
Sub-Merge is helping give further words to all God has done in my life this past year among the poor in Rio, Brasil and Cape Town, South Africa. I resonate with this quote...."In sub-merging among the poor, we have found that the world looks different from the way it does on the surface. We have seen God in a different way. We have seen Him redefine success and adjust the way we see beauty." I must admit that my time at home sometimes seems like a trip to an amusement park, far removed from the the realities of desperate poverty and suffering that impact a majority of the world. Just yesterday while sitting in church, I recognized my need to stay engaged in relationships with the poor here at home. I need the poor to stay grounded during this "in between" season. I need to be intentional about living "below the surface."
The beginning of the book grabbed my attention as John shares about experiences in Kolkata where he "set out to see poverty in India and came face-to-face with poor people instead. I could relate to John's experience in India where "God stripped him to the core to get him ready for a new worldview." That was me in India in 1997 and that stripping continues to shake up and shape my worldview.
Needless to say, I am Looking forward to this all this book has for me, as I continue to reflect and discern what's next! If you want to check out the book here is the web site.... http://www.submergebook.com/ and a blog http://www.submergeblog.com/.
0 comments:
Post a Comment