Adrian Plass - Jesus--Safe, Tender, Extreme

Also by Adrian Plass

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The Growing Up Pains of Adrian Plass

ZONDERVAN

JESUS SAFE, TENDER, EXTREME
Copyright 2006 by Adrian Plass

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN: 031-0-86267-1

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Plass, Adrian.
Jesus safe, tender, extreme / Adrian Plass.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25784-4
1. Jesus Christ Person and offices. 2. Spirituality Anecdotes. 3. Plass, Adrian. I. Title.
BT203.P53 2006
232 dc22

2005016640

Adrian Plass asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

05 06 07 08 09 10 11 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to my wifes mother,
Kathleen Rosa Ormerod.
Her life was a gift to others.
All she asked in return was a few flowers
and the love of her family and friends.

Contents

More than a century ago, Scottish author George Mac Donald wrote a book called Thomas Wingfold, Curate. It is the story of a young pastor who in spite of his job suddenly finds that he doesnt know what he believes. His awareness of his doubt is Gods first gift to him. His next gift is a desire to believe. His next gift is a wise spiritual guide who can help him navigate his doubts and questions and desires; and who focuses him on actually coming to seek to do what it is that Jesus asks.

At one point someone asks Wingfold if he still considers giving up the curacy. His response which I wont take the time to quote here moved me so deeply that the first time I heard it (being read on tape as I was driving my car) I had to pull the car over because I couldnt drive through the tears. He did not yet believe, Wingfold said. At least not fully, not completely. But he was convinced that if what Jesus said was not true; if there is not a God who is worthy of being the Loving Father whom Jesus described, then all of life is not worth a single tear that has been wept over it in the history of this sorry dark world. He is not yet convinced that Christianity is true in the way he wants to be convinced; but he is sure that Jesus is the only game in town.

What I love about this book by Adrian Plass is that it strikes just this same deeply honest, humanly humble, Jesus-intoxicated note. Adrian is remarkably candid about his own questions and searching champion of the Doubt Olympics several times over. There is never a hint of triumphalism or hydroplaning over the difficult issues. He writes as a critical evangelical who embraces and challenges the community that has shaped him. He loves the church, and hopes for the church, and has been deeply hurt by the church, and cannot stop longing for the church.

Often when people spend decades communicating about the faith, as Adrian has, they tend to go on spiritual autopilot. They come to know what kind of stories will gain attention; what kind of questions are safe to ask, what kind of answers are expected and will gain applause.

For Adrian, though, what ends up as a dialogue with you and me begins as a musing deep within his soul; or perhaps as the kind of conversation with God that we find being held in Scripture by folks like Moses and Abraham and Jonah questioning and complaining and thanking and fearful reverence and tender friendship and fierce determination spilling over in no particular order. It is especially a reflection about Jesus, who is safe enough to hide in, tender enough to trust, extreme enough to call us to life beyond ourselves.

Authors are generally asked to describe their target audience who is this book for? Often in our day target audiences get pretty niched: left-handed babysitters or mechanics who like Dylan Thomas. This is a book for honest, thoughtful people who would like to know Jesus better. It is written by someone who is convinced that Jesus is the only game in town.

John Ortberg, June 2005

Writing this book has been a strange, intense experience. In horticultural terms, my intention was to grow a tidy little shrub with a few decently spaced blooms and a general air of dignified symmetry. From the beginning it has not been like that. The roots of this project have plunged deeper into the dark earth than I had ever expected, while unmanageable fronds, tendrils, and trailing vines have shot out wildly in all directions and to all heights, searching for the light.

The light is Jesus. That much at least has been clear to me at every stage of my writing. I wanted to explore the fact that he has brought ultimate safety, tenderness, and a profound sense of adventure into my life. I believe I have done that, and as all good explorers will testify, the best possible way for an expedition to end is by coming home. We begin with Jesus, and if we have travelled by the correct route, we will certainly end with him as well.

A singular problem in the assembly of this book, if it really was a problem, arose from our immediate family circumstances. Shortly before I was due to begin writing, my wifes mother was brought home from the hospital, diagnosed with an aggressive, incurable cancer. The awareness of her presence and her suffering in our converted dining room had a profound effect on my thoughts and emotions as I sat down to begin work each day. Everything in me, and especially in my faith, seemed to be excavated and exposed by the vividly immediate presence of one who was about to finally discover exactly what lies behind all these spiritual concepts that we so easily wrap up in words. It made me determined to keep heaven and earth locked together in all the things that I might say. It made me want to tell the truth without pulling any punches. Lots of truth. Truth about all the good, bad, wonderful, silly, dreadful, puzzling, disappointing, heartwarming things that happen when ordinary Christians like you and me seriously set out to follow Jesus in the real world.