If you only read one sentence, let it be this one: buy this book, read this book, and pass it along. For those of you who like to read a few paragraphs in before skipping to whatever other site is on your RSS feed reader right now, let me tell you what book I'm writing about. Matthew Paul Turner's Beatitude (copyright 2006, Revell) is one of those books that just begs to be read slowly and passed along.
In sharing his journey as a Christian growing up in a Christian home, going to Christian schools and Christian camps and having Christian jobs and Christian goals and ambitions - and then also finding something mysterious and profound and meaningfully transforming in the midst of it all - it's the story we want to have, the story we hope begins to make sense for us on the Christian hamster wheel running the Christian race.
Accessible through his anecdotes and insights and overall writing style, Turner lays out things he's learned from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7. And what I like about it is that he's sharing the twists, those things that aren't obvious, the other side of the coin, the new perspective that fleshes out the truth. Like in the chapter titled "Salt", where he goes beyond the ideas of salt being a preservative and a flavor enhancement:
... I've learned too much salt overpowers all the other flavors. It takes over. Sometimes I have a tendency to bring my own version of Jesus into a situation, instead of recognizing he is already there. Consequently, instead of my actions enhancing Jesus, my words end up being too much, and it ends up making a potentially sweet piece of cake gross and bitter to the taste buds of others. / Sadly, too often, I'm guilty of being a spiritual salt lick. On so many occasions, I have worn my faith so obtrusively that, when people see it, the idea of following Jesus is gross and unimaginable. (p. 52)
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