Gifts of the Dark Wood
Seven Blessings for Soulful Skeptics (and Other Wanderers)
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- USD 9.99
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- USD 9.99
Descripción editorial
Have you left the faith you used to have but don’t know what to move toward? When you can’t see the road ahead, do you feel lost and alone? Do you wish you had a group of companions willing to wander with you?
Welcome to the Dark Wood.
As you journey through the unknown, you may feel tempted, lost, and uncertain. Though commonly feared and avoided, these feelings of uncertainty can be your greatest assets on this journey because it is in uncertainty that we probe, question, and discover. According to the ancients, you don’t need to be a saint or spiritual master to experience profound awakening and live with God’s presence and guidance. You need only to wander.
In clear and lucid prose that combines the heart of a mystic, the soul of a poet, and the mind of a biblical scholar, Dr. Eric Elnes demystifies the seven gifts bestowed in the Dark Wood: the gifts of uncertainty, emptiness, being thunderstruck, getting lost, temptation, disappearing, and the gift of misfits.
This is a book for anyone who feels awkward in their search for God, anyone who seeks to find holiness amid their holy mess, and anyone who prefers practicality to piety when it comes to finding their place in this world.
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Dante defined the "dark wood" as fearsome. Elnes (Asphalt Jesus) redefines it as a place that gives graceful gifts to Christian believers. Failures, vacuums, and doubts might not seem like "gifts"; however, they cannot (and should not) be avoided, Elnes counsels, because the seeming negatives prove critical for "finding your place in this world at the very point where you feel furthest from it." Seven of the nine chapters in this intelligent and understanding book describe the gifts: uncertainty, emptiness, being thunderstruck (voiceovers by the Holy Spirit), getting lost, temptation, disappearing, and misfits. Some are more surprising than others: for example, temptation does not refer to sex, drugs, and rock n' roll but to doing the wrong good "work that is not yours to do." Throughout, Elnes shares personal tales, quotes poetry (particularly David Whyte's), and retells Scripture stories especially Peter's. At the end, he movingly addresses the church today. Elnes's style is friendly, familiar, even woodsy, exploiting the second-person "you" to guide and assure.