It is Eric Metaxas who says "Loving God" is Colson's best book. I'm not in a position to say, but I respect Metaxas' judgment and enthusiasm. But what does it mean to love God? Metaxas says,
For Chuck, the answer lay in what Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote: “Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes.”
(I could have posted that as a "quote of the day" and left it at that. It's profound.)
But Metaxas continues:
A “vibrant strong faith” is not “just knowledge but knowledge acted upon.” It is “not just belief but belief lived out.” Real faith, which is the cure to self-absorption and the way out of the prison we construct for ourselves, consists of “believing and act obediently regardless of circumstances or contrary evidence.”
Metaxas gives his personal testimony:
I’ll never forget reading "Loving God" after I became a Christian. I had never read or heard anything quite like it. This is the stuff of transformed lives; this is the stuff of which a world turned upside down is made.
The book "loving God" is still timely.
The thing is, "Loving God" is even more timely today than it was in 1983. It scarcely seems possible but our culture is even more preoccupied with the Self than it was thirty years ago. A survey of college students found that today’s student score significantly higher on the Narcissistic Personality Disorder than those of thirty years ago. At the same time, they are less likely to be happy.
Chuck’s message to the Church — that faith is inseparable from obedience and faithfulness — is every bit as essential today as when he wrote Loving God thirty years ago. . .
Read the whole article...
Me: Eric Metaxas has made me want to pull down from the shelf my copy of "Loving God." It sounds like an inspiring and spiritually nourishing (and challenging) read.