There is a common belief that when people commit their lives to following Jesus they will feel good. Their problems will go away. They will find answers to all their questions. They will pray for something and get it. They will be healthy. Their families will be successful. Their children won't get into trouble. They'll get sober or stop gambling. Their relationships will be really good.
If this is what you believe I urge you to read Northern Lights: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Writing in Canada. Its contributors include Bruce Cockburn (yes, the singer) and Preston Manning (yes, the former Reform politician) and a whole lot of other people well known and unknown. There are stories of disappointment, of fulfillment and some I just didn't get. But what comes through in most of them is that each person was surprised by what their faith brought into their lives.
The book is arranged according to six themes: Dance to Creation, A Place in the World, Sorrow and the Wild, Leaps of Faith, Transformation, Glimpses of Glory. As I read it I found that the ideas of love, of encountering the divine when God reached past the ordinary things in life to us, and of being called to be more than we are, showed up in each section.
In "Why I Enjoy My Job", Douglas Todd who is a columnist for the Vancouver Sun writes: "The cross and resurrection reveal how God experiences the world's ecstasy and pain, while constantly persuading us, in every moment, to become co-creators in divine love."
Anita L. Keith is an instructor in aboriginal education at Red River Community College in Winnipeg. She writes about "Sacred Encounters with Wolf" and compares the changes facing Wolf in a changing environment to the Christian spiritual journey. Both Wolf and people make choices in their efforts to meet the high callings we are drawn toward. "As I think of the plight of Wolf within the limited space in which she must now survive, I can identify with her. To learn from Wolf, we must allow Wolf's wisdom to be personal, affecting our identity, sense of belonging, and hidden fears. We enter into her story, a story that parallels our own life experiences."
Diane Tucker's poem "Vacancy" is about death:
"Nature abhorring a vacuum, all the space
You took in the world is now filled,
Presumably, with air, with dust and dog hair
And the sound waves of my father's weeping." doesn't offer any pat religious answers but reminds us to "hear the silence and look up."
The Rev. Peter Short, a former moderator of The United Church of Canada describes the failures of human rights, gambling and the economic system in Canada, then says: "Don't adjust to these things. God may not be available but God is still God. When we shake a fist at the sky and shout, 'God where are you? How could you let this happen?' we are likely to hear the reply, 'Indeed, where are you? How could you?'"
Leonard Desroches, a drywall taper, was arrested and tried in Toronto, with two other men, for trying to remove a sword that is still attached to a cross in a Toronto church. He has been threatened, robbed and harassed by his neighbours and others because of his anti-war work. He writes: "Slowly, I am learning that not to live the mystery of love of enemy is to be seriously stunted in spirit, in vision, and in imagination When hospitality or resistance is disconnected from love of enemy, what is it really all about? When the crises and conflicts surface, will we have the spiritual resources needed?"
James Loney, who was held hostage in Baghdad for four months, has written about his summer at Gods Lake Narrows in 1987. "I was afraid because I felt so different, and I was upset with my obsessive awareness of being different . despite my illusions to the contrary, I too was bound by racialized categories of us and them." He describes how a game of soccer helped him start to get past those feelings. He describes how the story of Jesus and the disciples in a storm at sea helped him understand that God wants us to move into that place, uncomfortable at first, where we can see God in everyone. "I went to Gods Lake Narrows thinking I was going to help impoverished native people, but instead I received an extraordinary gift. I began to feel I could really belong to the human race. I learned there is no foreign land, everywhere is home and everyone is a brother or sister created by God to laugh and play together in a great cosmic game of soccer, and the only rule is an invitation: come and be yourself."
The stories vary from song lyrics, word pictures, serious essays, to biography. They are funny, sad, touching and challenging. The unconditional love of a loud, misbehaving disabled child Katie is compared to Christ's love, as is the love of an Orthodox priest's wife Oksana Olekshy and that of Madame Pauline Vanier.
This is a book about Christianity as it is lived by ordinary people who have been molded by their love for Christ, a love that has pushed them to be completely who they are.
Rev. Leslie-Elizabeth King is the pastor of St. John's United Church on Caribou Road in Thompson.
