If you are the kind of person who encourages your child to take a swan dive off the roof of your house and into your arms, then you really need to read Erwin Raphael McManus [1]. If not, perhaps you should think about it.
McManus writes: The divine potential of a moment is unlocked by the choices we make (18). The Greeks call this kairos time—a moment of crisis or decision. Kairos time contrasts with chronos time—calendar or clock time which just plods along. When God created Adam and Eve, he placed them in a “garden of choices.” They choose badly and everything changed (19). Later, God set choices before the nation of Israel. Moses wrote:
See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. (Deuteronomy 30:15-18 ESV)
Likewise, God asks us to make choices (21). Even the life of Rahab, the prostitute, was redeemed by her choices both a physical and spiritual sense [2]. In joining the Nation of Israel, Rahab became the great, great grandmother of King David which also means that Jesus himself was her descendant (23-24).
McManus warns Christians against getting trapped in passivity. He writes:
We have put so much emphasis on avoiding evil that we have become virtually blind to the endless opportunities for doing good…the great tragedy is not the sins we commit, but the life that we fail to live…There is a subtle danger of hiding apathy behind piety..If there is one secret to seizing your divine moment, it is that you must take initiative (34-35).
McManus focuses his message on 1 Samuel 14:1-23 which is the story of Jonathan, King Saul’s son and friend of David. This is a saga of competing discernment stories. King Saul slept under a pomegranate tree with 600 men waiting for a word from God; Jonathan took his armor bearer and went out to challenge the Philistines to a fight asking God to bless his efforts. God not only blessed his efforts (the 2 of them killed 20 Philistines; v 14), God also set off a panic among the Philistine army that resulted in them suffering a huge defeat—the Philistines were so confused that they ended up killing each other (v 20). Apparently, God is not the god of sleepy Christians.
McManus writes: I have seen the pomegranate dilemma again and again. Those who hold the authority and resources of the kingdom are all too often more motivated to make sure that they do not lose them rather than to make sure they are used properly (38). He concludes: The more you move with God-given urgency, the more God seems to bless your life. The more God blesses your life, the more you have to lose… The more you have to risk, the higher the price of following God (39). Still, McManus observes: when you are passionate about God, you can trust your passions (47).
McManus is lead pastor and cultural architect of Mosaic in Los Angeles, California [3]. Erwin comes originally from El Salvador and holds degrees from the University of North Carolina, Southwestern Theological Seminary, and Southeastern University. Seizing Your Divine Moment is written in 9 chapters which divide, like an earthquake, into sections entitled foreshock, epicenter, and aftershock. The chapter titles are:
Choices—Choose to Live;
Initiative—Just Do Something;
Uncertainty—Know You Don’t Know;
Influence—Breathe In, Breathe Out;
Risk—Live Before You Die, and Vice Versa;
Advance—Unless You Get a No;
Impact—Leave a Mark;
Movement—Ignite a Reaction; and
Awakening—Wake the Dead (v).
These chapters are preceded by acknowledgments and followed by a write up about McManus.
Seizing Your Divine Moment played an important role in my pastoral formation. In 2005 when I read the book, I was working full-time as an economist and did not enter seminary until 2008. It helped shape my view of what church can and should be and kept me from despairing about how it often turns out. I recommend the book to those considering seminary or simply desiring to jump start their faith. It is a book for the young and the young at heart.
[1] Paraphrase of a story from a sermon. See: Erwin Raphael McManus 2005. The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
[2] Her testimony is striking: I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death. (Joshua 2:9-13 ESV)
[3] mosaic dot org.
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