Julia Cameron’s new book, Faith and Will, jumped into my hands while I was cruising around Borders one Sunday afternoon. Cameron is the international bestselling author of The Artist’s Way, but it wasn’t her name that hooked me. It was the subtitle — Weathering the Storms in Our Spiritual Lives — that drew my attention. Lately I’ve been wondering where my goodness went. Did it get lost with my money in the economic downturn?
In scanning the first few pages of the book, I noticed right away Cameron was on the same page with me. She was “caught off guard by life and by feelings of emptiness.” She “needs to feel connected to God.” She wants to act “out of some inner sense of guidance.” These personal revelations sealed the deal, and I walked out of the store with the great hope Faith and Will would provide me with the inspiration I was temporarily lacking.
The juiciest part of Faith and Willis the fact that Cameron writes as if she’s talking to her best friend. She tells gutsy, personal, authentic things about herself that other people typically hide. Like for example, Cameron is shamelessly ambitious. She wants to make big money. She’s prone to nervous breakdowns. The guy she loved didn’t love her back. But even more – she’s a secular, commercially-successful person living a God-centered life, and she has a cadre of God-centered friends, too. My interest in Cameron’s unflinching honesty and her Godly lifestyle ultimately trumped my disappointments with the content and format of Faith and Will and became the primary reasons I actually finished her book.
Faith and Will is about what to do when the plans we make for ourselves don’t work out. Cameron uses the word faith to mean we should believe in a loving, caring God who has a purpose and plan for us – even if we can’t see it. Especially when we can’t see it. And she uses the word will to mean we should get out of the way and let God lead us to His plan, whatever it might be. Unfortunately, Cameron doesn’t look at all aspects of desire. She never addresses why some people get their personal desires and plans fulfilled and why others don’t. How come a child abductor can find an unattended child to snatch when a harmless, church-going jobless person can’t find a job? Does the child abductor have stronger personal power? Did he focus more deliberately or fervently? Make a better bargain? Is God like a great big idol judge in the sky, either granting or withholding our desires? What’s the trick?
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Article comments
1 - John
there shuld be more BIBLES not pickjers
Falith Basted settings
get knowing Jesus