One is sensitive and one is raw. One is adventurous and one is intellectual. The four who molded me…
KEN GIRE
When I read Windows of the Soul I wept. His words struck a chord that no one had played in my soul. He was the first “male” non-fiction Christian author I had read who wrote in a sensitive manner, also encompassing the arts, music and culture. Gire is not afraid to write about his feelings, yet not wallowing in them. However, he seems to say we must acknowledge them first, before we can heal and grow.
“Every day as the sun set in the expansive Texas sky, I cried out to God to give me my life back, to rescue me from the wilderness. He taught me that the way out of the wilderness was on a road paved with tears.” (Windows of the Soul)
ANN VOSKAMP
Who in the Christian literary world today writes non-fiction books which exemplify creative writing? However, Ann does not stop there. Her words are gritty and raw exposing the reader to her past where God used her family tragedy and brokenness to give to others even now in the present. No one writes like Ann!
“That cross on my wrist where I used to self-harm, that cross keeps relentlessly suturing me together.” (The Broken Way)
“I am not the sins I have chosen; I am chosen by the Beloved, regardless of my sins.” (The Broken Way)
“The act of sacrificing thank offerings to God-even for the bread and cup of cost, for cancer and crucifixion-this prepares the way for God to show us His fullest salvation from bitter, angry, resentful lives and from all sin that estranges us from Him.” (One Thousand Gifts)
JOHN ELDREDGE
I love the great outdoors and this author writes about his outdoor journeys and more importantly the adventure God wants to take us on as men. Eldredge writes ruggedly and honestly, and as Chuck Swindoll said… “free of cliche” (from the introduction to Wild at Heart)
“There comes a time when you have to leave all that is familiar, and go on into the unknown with God.” (Wild at Heart)
“A man just won’t be happy until he’s got adventure in his work, in his love and in his spiritual life.” (Wild at Heart)
PHILIP YANCEY
“The only author whose books I have put in the hands of skeptics and believers alike without the fear of embarrassment, knowing they will be intellectually stretched and spiritually challenged.” (Nelson Haynes)
“I saw that writing could seep into crevices, bringing spiritual oxygen to people trapped in air-tight boxes.” (from Soul Survivor)
That quote and a thousand others are why I love Philip Yancey. The first book I read was Disappointment with God, after the disillusionment of learning at the green age of twenty-two, that the pastor who hired me for my first ministry job was not who I thought he was. As I read Yanceys’ books, he became an invisible friend who intellectually and spiritually walked beside me through the dark corridors of my own skepticism, doubt and discouragement.
pictures courtesy of “Nelson & his Nikon”