Marginal Jesus Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Posted by Tom in book reviews, jesus, society.trackback
Truly, truly, truly a great book. Rick McKinley is the lead pastor of Imago Dei, a community of faith in Portland, OR. This is the church where Donald Miller, the author of numerous books including the phenomenally successful book Blue Like Jazz attends and helps out at. This book is about how do we see ourselves, how do we let other people, how do we let other things, and circumstances define us. Much of the time we can be defined by others in loser type categories. We aren’t this or that. And because of this we are pushed towards the gutters, the margins of life.
McKinley says…don’t let these things define you because that is not who we are. First Jesus came and he came to the margins and he spent time there and hung out with people who felt alienated and out of place with the rest of society. In the words of the old Steve Taylor song, Jesus was for losers. And then he says let God define you. God sees us so much differently then we see ourselves or how others see us. We are his creation, we are his possession, we are his treasure. Reimagine life defined by how God views us rather than how we view, or how others view, ourself.
Jesus came to the margins, to redefine our view of ourselves. But he came to the margins not to leave us there but to pull us from there and then to help others escape the margins of life.
The book is a great read, moves, at times, a tad slow but is filled with good stuff. If you are caught in the margins you can escape. If you are out of the margins you don’t have to ever go back. Allow God to define you, not others.
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