without demanding a return.
That's good news for
every offender.
+ Searching for Enough:
The High-Wire Walk
Between Doubt & Faith
Along with The Deep Down Things by Amber and Seth Haines, Deep Down Faith by Cornelius Planting Jr., The Ache for Meaning by Tommy Brown, and Beholding by Strahan Coleman, Tyler Staton's first book, Searching for Enough, has been a faithful companion during this first quarter of 2024. I actually read Staton's second book, Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools first and loved it. And I've loved Searching for Enough as well.
The next three posts are in honor of Holy Week and how Searching for Enough captures some thoughtful glimpses of Jesus at the end of His life. These posts also complement a previous series entitled "Yeshua" based on Frances Spufford's writings in Unapologetic.
Recovering the Plot
Jesus called His own life and message "good news." Why? Because the God whom Jesus revealed is big enough to paint the stars across the sky with a single word from His lips and personal enough for an unhurried conversation with a single individual. The incomprehensible Maker of the cosmos is also gentle, loving, and personal.
Yeshua is
powerful enough
to calm the storm and
personal enough
to patiently, presently
listen with compassion
in His eyes to the
insecurities and fears
of a single individual.
He is
powerful enough
to heal the sick and
personal enough
to weep alongside
the grieving.
He is
powerful enough
to feed the nations and
personal enough
to pass the rolls
Jesus' message is good news
because it's the only plot
big enough
for the complexity
of the world and
personal enough
for me and you
to catch and join.
In an "eye for an eye" society built on fairness and rights, Jesus forgave when He was wronged without demanding a return. That's good news for every offender. He set people free from owing any debt. At a time in history when ailments were thought of as curses from God, signs of condemnation, Jesus healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, cleansed the skin of those with leprosy, and made the paralyzed to stand. He restored people to the community they were created to enjoy.
Yeshua is good news
for the excluded.
for the excluded.
In a society heavily based on class and power, Jesus dignified outcast, the overlooked, the condemned, and the forgotten by treating them as equal — better than equal — as honored. To those worthless in this world, He gives divine worth.
He is good news
for the marginalized.
for the marginalized.
His teaching wasn't eloquent or well-rehearsed. It was something better. It was true.
He is good news
for those reaching
for control through
perfection.
The life that humanity lost through control is restored through surrender. Jesus loves relentlessly. His love can't be broken. He was ignored, opposed, cursed, even betrayed. None of it changed His fixed gaze of love. That's good news for everybody, every last one of us. Jesus, by love, restores the trust humanity lost in the Creator of this story gone mad.
There are plenty of other stories painting different portraits of an all-powerful Designer with exclusive truth claims. The myriad of available religious, mystical, and philosophical stories makes this absolutely clear: An all-powerful Creator is not necessarily "good news." It all depends on what the Creator does with all that power.
The life of Jesus claims
that the all-powerful
God of the universe
is loving, kind, and merciful.
He is for you, not against you.
In Jesus, God undressed Himself
of every speck of divinity
that might separate
you from Him.
He came down to our level.
He lived among us.
Faced what we face.
Was tempted as we are.
Took on pain as we must.
He humbled Himself,
weakened Himself,
emptied Himself
—
all for the sake of
one loving pursuit:
a restored relationship
with you.
Richard Foster writes,
"Humility means to live
as close to the truth
as possible:
as close to the truth
as possible:
the truth about ourselves,
the truth about others,
the truth about the world
in which we live ...
Humility is, in fact,
filled with power
to bring forth life.
The word itself
comes from the Latin
hummus,
which means
fertile ground."
Jesus showed us a new way to live. Actually, He reminded us of the life we were always meant to live but had lost somewhere along the way. That's why, as much as we cringe at the way Jesus is portrayed in mass media — as detestable as it may be to think about some of His most outspoken representatives, and as muddled as His reputation may be because our personal and painful past experiences — when we take a hard, honest look at the life of Jesus of Nazareth, something comes alive in us, some sort of longing, some sort of homesickness. His life awakens us; it pulls at us. And that's only because
Yeshua's living the truth —
the truth about God,
about the self,
about other people,
and about the world.
Here is the life of Jesus: the director inserted Himself into the story, and He has recovered the plot.
+ Tyler Straton
in Searching for Enough*,
pgs. 127-130
*If you are intrigued or excited by what you read, purchase Searching for Enough: The Hire-Wire Walk Between Doubt and Faith by Tyler Straton as there is more to be enchanted by in Chapter 12: A Way to Die and Chapter 13: A Way to Live Again than I can include in one post.
Next post: A Good Way to Die Fully
May God's Kingdom come, His will be done.
Que le Royaume de Dieu vienne,
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇
With anticipation and joy,
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