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 PrintableVersion Finding God in Unexpected PlacesSurprise surprise!FINDING GOD IN UNEXPECTED PLACES Philip Yancey is a widely-travelled Christian journalist. His writing is refreshing, colourful and enjoyable which has made him one of the most popular and acclaimed religious writers of our day. In this 240-page paperback there are 42 chapters averaging a little over five pages each, many of them adapted from articles in Christianity Today. As the title suggests Yancey specialises in finding God in unexpected places. The most striking for me are his descriptions of travels with Ron Nikkel of Prison Fellowship International to places like Chile, Madagascar and Zambia. Groups of Christian prisoners powerfully exhibit the life of Jesus in conditions of unspeakable squalor. Yancey loves free grace and occasionally will pop in a paragraph reminding us of how Jesus works: 'This Samaritan "outcast" woman was the first person to whom Jesus openly revealed himself as the Messiah. After the conversation beside a well, this same woman led a wholesale revival in her town. When her deepest thirst was quenched, a thirst she had never recognised before Jesus named it, all other thirsts took their rightful place' (p.17). A present day inner-city stirring is described in the 28-year pastorate of Bill Leslie labouring in a wretched rundown slum in Chicago. This work of grace has endured through testings, including the time when Bill was attacked by three men in the sanctuary hoping to steal the morning offering. 'They hit him on the head with a bowling pin, stomped on his groin, and battered him with a fire extinguisher. Stripped of clothing, gagged, hogtied, Bill lay in the vestibule and reconsidered his call to the city. But he did not give up' (p. 164). Yancey faces realities head on, such as the terrible on-coming whirlwind of drug addiction. 'Around four million (American) babies have been born to users of "crack", an exceptionally potent form of cocaine. These babies, born addicted and underweight, often have severe physical and emotional problems. The oldest of these offspring are now invading the classrooms of public schools, which already have their hands full with "normal" children. Crack children have an impossibly low attention span, exhibit hostile behaviour, and show few signs of a moral conscience' (p. 73). The downside of this book is that it covers too many subjects without sufficient depth or analysis. But still Yancey is 1,000 times more informative and challenging than 95% of the vulgarity and trivia of today's TV. Switch off, take Yancey, and add to the endangered species of those who read. Erroll Hulse, Leeds© Evangelicals Now - May 2002 |
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