I am thankful that Zondervan Publishers sent me a copy of Ravi Zacharias's new book, The Grand Weaver. I am a fan of Mr. Zacharias's work as a Christian apologist, if "fan" is the right word. I have heard him speak, via videotape, and I've read others of his books. I especially enjoyed and found useful a little book called The Lotus and the Cross: Jesus Talks With Buddha. I was also impressed with Mr. Zacharias's wisdom and courage when in 2004 he accepted an invitation to speak at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. His topic was "The Exclusivity and Sufficiency of Jesus Christ," but still he received criticism from fellow evangelicals who accused him of syncretism and of lending legitimacy to the claims of Mormonism. So I was expecting a lot from this new book, the theme of which is the providence of God or seeing God's plan in life's events.
I tried reading the book straight through, but whether because my mind is a bit scattered and distracted these days or because the book itself is not as organized as it should be, I found it hard going. There were lots of pearls in there, but they were dispersed here and there among paragraphs and sentences that, frankly, didn't seem to say much at all. So I decided to read the book in a different way.
The book is made up of an introduction, eight chapters, and an epilogue. Then, there's also a series of 25 key questions and answers on the topic of God's purpose and the meaning of life in the back of the book after the epilogue. I thought I would read a section or a chapter each day as a sort of devotional. The chapter titles are:
1; Your DNA Matters
2. Your Disappointments Matter
3. Your Calling Matters
4. Your Morality Matters
5. Your Spirituality Matters
6. Your WIll Matters
7. Your Worship Matters
8. Your Destiny Matters
I found this way of reading the book much more useful and enlightening than trying to read it all at once. I have a low tolerance for what I call Christian pop psychology, but Mr. Zacharias goes beyond that categorization. His writing is both thoughtful and accessible, a combination that makes him a premier Christian apologist for our times. A lot of people, both Christian and non-Christian, are looking for meaning in life and trying to discern God's purpose in the circumstances of their lives. I think this book, read in small devotional doses and then used as meat for meditation and finally action, will be helpful to those of us who are a bit stressed and scattered these days. It's not a book to be read and discarded, but rather to be pondered and re-read and compared to Scripture and even prayed over.
I'll leave you with a couple of quotes that I found beneficial:
In the garden it was not we who were set up but we who tried to set God up by blaming him for the situation and then wishing to redefine everything. Had we obeyed everything, we still would have lost if we had errantly concluded that we deserved what the garden offered.
"What is my destiny? It is to feel, to see, to have all of the senses finally converge in the fullest expression of purpose. Everything I experience and feel before I arrive at that heavenly home amounts to mere analogy. Everything in my heavenly home is consummate expression."
