S&U Review by Glynn Young – Faith, Fiction, Friends
Faith has been described as a journey, a challenge, a life, a lifetime, a pilgrimage, a battle, and a lot more things as well, but I’ve never heard it described quite as Jason Clark describes it in Surrendered and Untamed: A Field Guide for the Vagabond Believer. Jumping off a cliff. Skydiving. Death. “Only dead men can experience the resurrection, baby!” Financial death. You and your family are down to your last $200 – and you give it to someone you don’t know who has an emergency room bill. Skiing down a suicide slope with the wrong ski on. Talking to God, and God talking to you. Audibly. And a lot.
What is this? It’s faith like I’ve rarely seen it, experienced it, lived it. It is what Clark, a speaker, writer, musician and a lot of other things, too, says we are called to do and to be – that we fully experience God’s character and love and joy. Surrendered and untamed. And Clark is a Canadian. Aren’t Canadians supposed to be calm?
Using a combination of Biblical and personal stories, Clark embarks upon a wild ride, a wild ride called faith. This isn’t John Eldredge and Wild at Heart; far from it. This is a call to be whom we are designed to be, to live our faith as God wants us to live it. You want to say whoa! Slow down! Get real for a minute. And Clark replies: “I can’t explain all of this from a realist perspective; it’s just not there. I’m afraid realism is living in the kingdom of man. While realism can often appear to be to be practical, respectable, and wise, it’s simply unbelief…Believing is living in the kingdom of God…The thinking mind is never to replace the believing heart.”
Clark proceeds to walk the reader through a process of understanding, and the more you read, the more you understand what he’s saying and doing. He’s telling us that God wants us and desires us to live a good story, the point of which is the end: “The end of the story is the joy of greater intimacy with God. It’s the surrendered and untamed existence that God has called all of us to live.”
This is exhilarating and terrifying stuff. Exactly! Clark would say, it’s terrifying and exhilarating because that’s what God is, and that’s the life he wants us to live. Surrendered and Untamed is a crazy book. Crazy good.
Glynn Young – Faith, Fiction, Friends To purchase Surrendered and Untamed, A Field Guide for the Vagabond Believer on Amazon click HERE
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