Ran across a wonderful and amazingly honest statement of paradise lost and desire. Graham Tomlin in his teaching on “Kingship” in our St. Paul’s course had this quote (it hit me square and the book is now on order with Amazon):
In his book, Life After God, Douglas Coupland writes about a generation of people who have grown up without any knowledge of God, Generation X. Towards the end of the book, he writes about this character who is lost and he says, “Now here is my secret that I tell to you with openness of heart as I doubt you will ever hear them again. So I pray that you are in a quiet room. My secret is that I need God. That I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give because I am no longer capable of giving; to help me be kind because I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me to love as I seem beyond being able to love.”
Your thoughts?
Related Articles
4 users responded in this post
This is a secret that screams from every pore of all of God’s creation. Only the strong are able to whipser it outloud. When we are weak, it is then that we are strong…
a great book i read on that was Emerging Hope: A Strategy for Reaching Postmodern Generations. by Jimmy Long. It is a few years old, 2004, but still a good foundational work about Xers and Millenials.
You may want to check out this video and decide for yourself. Look up the rock group KoRn. You may see some parallels to the Life After God reference.
http://www.iamsecond.com/#/seconds/Brian_Welch/
I remember my dad explaining to me, when I was 4 mind you, about Darwin and the supremacy of evolution. I remember when I was 16, and he told me to never get married without living with the guy first. And I remember my father, near the end of his life, wondering with a deep sense of confusion about why nothing ever seemed to work out for him.
When Christ is absent from the home, everything is absent. I cannot put into words the hollow feeling I grew up with–knowing we were missing something–yet not knowing what that something was.
My father grew up with a rich heritage in the Lord which he completely denied. One family member started Sidcot (a school) in England when Quakers were still Christians (although the school is still around today and is thriving). Another signed the Declaration of Independence.
In fact, most of his mother’s family did quite a bit to shape this country–profoundly. I am proud of that. But I did not know it until I was in my 30′s. My father was ashamed of it all and never talked about his background.
I was the first in my family to confess my secret need for God–my desperate need for God. I was asked to move out of the house because of that need. I did. I chose Jesus over family. But I was just 18.
My need for Jesus was as strong as my father’s rejection of Him so I always felt fanatical and worried about it. But you know what? It was worth it. Against all odds my sister came to know Christ, too. And now she and her husband are raising my niece in a home where Jesus is Lord.
I couldn’t be happier.
The Lord is good and His mercy does endure forever. And I’m glad that He loved me enough to not let this Generation X-er slip out of His grasp. But what you quoted could not be more true. I am not kidding when I say I prayed those very same words. Sometimes I still do.
Good post. And thanks.