Sometimes I read a book, and it feels like I’ve got to finish it so that I can understand life. Dallas Willard is an author referenced by many speakers and authors I respect, but whose works I had never read.
I found myself in Barnes and Nobel with my family recently. Browsing through the shelves, I found lots of books to peruse, knowing that I could buy something with a gift card given me by one of my ninth grade students. Then I happened upon The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard. I picked it up and read the foreword by Richard Foster. Foster called it, “the book I have been searching for all my life.” Whoa. That’s the highest praise I can imagine, coming from a very profound author.
I brought the book home, and have been taking every free moment to read it. Willard says that coming to Christ is more than a visa stamped in one’s eternal passport. Jesus wants to be an intimate part of our lives here and now. Salvation is not just about heaven. Salvation is not just about doing good for the down and out.
God invites us to an eternal kind of living. He truly transforms us, inside and out. He makes us new creatures. That’s the life I am getting a taste of. That’s the life I long to delve into. That’s the joyful, abundant, risk-filled life that Jesus wants us to have.
The Christian life should not be dull – it should be exciting. It should not be about following rules, but following Jesus.
I think Willard has a lot to teach me about that. I think the Holy Spirit has a lot to show me about that.
