Summer Readings 3

I just finished (finally) reading "Your God is Too Safe" by Mark Buchanan.

I enjoyed reading most of this book. I say most because after some time, the reading became repetitive and bland. But the cons will come later.

Pros:
The overall point that Buchanan is making is stellar and right on the dot. Christians have fallen into this idea that God is a "safe and cuddly" kind of old man who sits back and just lets things happen as they will. Not so much "safe" as in Christians aren't going out and standing on the streets yelling "I am in love with a man, and His name is Jesus" kind of thing; rather, it is that Christians are so content with their lives that they are unwilling to have the powerful God of the universe break into their lives and shake things up a bit. He makes excellent examples to what this looks like in our own lives and I found myself being very convicted about several areas of my life that I don't often allow God to enter into. I also love his sections on practicing God's presence, brokenness, and confession. I think he did an excellent job conveying very true ideas there. I'm also inordinately pleased that Buchanan included a C.S. Lewis reference to "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".

Cons:
I did not like how he basically repeated everything that Richard Foster had to say in "Celebration of Discipline". It was as though he took Foster's book and changed the words around a bit to make it his own and spit it back out.
I also did not like his depiction of Jacob, but that is because I studied Jacob quite intensively last semester and had some differing thoughts on his wrestling with God.
I also did not care for his writing style. But that's because I'm a nit-picky English nerd who has read too many books*.

My overall opinion: Great ideas, good book, poor sections. But you should check it out anyway.
I now leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

"Is-is he a man?" asked Lucy.
"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan is a lion - the lion, the great Lion."
"Ooh," said Susan, "I thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver. "If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver, "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king, I tell you."

*This is a lie. I can never read too many books.