I have been asked to share a few comments on a couple of the new books added to the Springhouse Library that are displayed on the Library Cart. Naomi Nelson – Salem
“Stranger God: Meeting Jesus in Disguise” by Richard Beck
This is a book about the “strangeness of a God” who comes to us in strangers. (Matthew 25) Jesus comes to us in disguise in foreigners and refugees, in the homeless and outcasts, in the prisoner and the hungry. Beck draws on his own experiences in response to his Stranger God’s call to love and compassion for the other, the stranger.
I read this book a couple of years ago and will be reading it again and again.
The message reached down into the very depths of my soul (and in my gut). It forever changed me. I particularly saw the homeless through new eyes. I live in Uptown and am in walking distance to most places I frequent . I would encounter persons on Lyndale, Lake Street and Hennepin in particular, who would ask for money and some showed evidence they had been sleeping there. Often I felt uncertain how I should respond. With some I could but with others I was more hesitant (let’s just say it, whatever I was feeling had its roots in “fear”). I have truly believed that Jesus called me to love my neighbor and I have always felt a deep sadness whenever I have neglected to act like one. Thank goodness for God’s grace. This writer’s message has touched my heart and liberated me. I can now make eye contact, smile, ask their name, and see them for whom they are. God’s Beloved. (And their names are added to my prayer list.) That segues into the next book ……
“Life of the Beloved” by Henri J. M. Nouwen
Nouwen wrote “Life of the Beloved” for the secular world at the request of a secular Jewish friend. However, it has also ended up making a tremendously deep impression on searching Christians.
Henri says, “Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence .” And – the existence of all those strangers out there who are also His Beloved that He wants us to see.
In any Nouwen book I have read, God’s quiet voice reaches me through his words and experiences and I am changed. This one filled me with joy and peace and the embracing of His “fierce love” . (Author Brennan Manning’s expression from “Ragamuffin’s Gospel” .)
