Spurning the Safe God

I mentioned Mark Buchanan's book Your God is Too Safe in my last post. When this was first recommended to me I was adamantly against it. My mother had recommended it and in my proud opinion my mother could only ever recommend an Oprah Winfrey sponsored product (sorry mum.) She’s proven me wrong and inadvertently humbled me. The title should have been my clue that this might happen. The God of the day time chat shows, when he does exist is definitely ‘too safe.’ The topic of the book is self-revelatory in the title – Buchanan endeavours to warn us against becoming ‘stuck’ with a ‘safe God.’

The concept of an God who isn’t safe can be seen be found in C.S. Lewis’ books The Chronicles of Narnia with which Buchanan is intimately versed. Buchanan describes the vast majority of Christians as stuck in ‘Borderland’ between the realm of the world and the vibrant but dangerous realm Christ inhabits with us.

I can confidently say it is by far the best Christian publication I've read, Buchanan is well versed in theology but never actually uses jargon he doesn't flesh out and explain. I went through a rough time with my faith over the past year and a bit and God has used this book to bring about a great deal of healing and leave me hungering after more of His wisdom and love.