The author intentionally uses a cryptic style, to address the age-old questions surrounding our existence as individuals. The book is intended for under 30’s. and in the first chapter, the writer dismisses our belief or non-belief in God as hopelessly inadequate to our needs. The author poses the question, “Does God believe in you?” and referencing some biblical authorities dares to assert God thought you were a good idea in the first place and will not change His/Her mind. In other words, “We are beloved of God.” If this is God’s attitude then the social pressures and the opinion of others we live with are rendered moot. If this is the case, then the Divine is profoundly active in our world. Creation did not happen but is happening. What we do matters. This is the foundation of morality. The author goes one step further and suggests we are invited to be creators in little, to be responsible partners in the future.
The other eleven chapters unfold with some startling ideas that follow as a result of that idea of our origins. Experiencing ourselves as beloved of God changes our response to the world of people. The author challenges normal religious assumptions by some outrageous assertions: We need an 11th Commandment, ‘Thou shalt not be a doormat’. Being a PNP, (professional nice person) is not our calling. Evil is a big deal. If the meek inherited the earth, they would neither want it nor would they know what to do with it. Seeing others as God sees them is a continuing revelation, and that makes loving our neighbor more of an adventure than a duty.
These and other sentiments challenge traditional religious assumptions and force the reader to readjust our mostly medieval way of thinking to what we experience in the here and now. Guilt and shame have little place in the modern way of thinking, how then are we to be transformed? If truth and justice is all relative, then where does it leave any of us? So the author leads us to realize it is not what we think but what God does, and it is not what we know but who we know that matters. The author leaves us with a sense of a very imminent and active Divinity that seeks to be known, and can hardly wait for our invitation to be party to our lives.
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