Book Review: The Barbarian Way
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Well I'm a tad behind on my quota for my new years resolution to read a book a month...however, there is an excuse reason for this lapse. After the last book that I read back in February, I started to explore a couple of different selections, but each time I just kept being brought back to a book that had actually occupied my library for a while, and one which I had previously read most of before. This time however, as I decided to revisit this particular book, I really chose to take my time with it and dig deep...because for me, I really, truly believe that it is such a relevant word to where I am in my life at the present moment.
The book is "The Barbarian Way" by Erwin Raphael McManus, who is by far one of my favorite authors and speakers bar none. I absolutely love the passion and rawness that drives the way in which he communicates...and because of it, I own just about everything that he has put out. On a more personal level though, this book is something that I hold a little more near and dear due to the fact that it is one that my dad gave to me...and it wasn't one of those, "here you go son, saw this and thought you might like it because it has a cool cover or title" type of books. In fact, on the inside cover it reads, "Read this book & unleash the barbarian within...I challenge you! - Dad".
I guess for me, I have just gotten to the point of where I am so completely fed up with the status quot, and living life as normal (because I found that normal isn't cutting it), that lately I have found myself praying and asking the Lord to divinely disrupt and disturb the level of comfort in my own life (as well as in the lives of my students). And I believe that for me, this book was yet another catalyst used to point me down that path that I have simply chosen to take. The Barbarian Way is about taking the road less traveled...the road that is packed full of adventure, uncertainty, and unlimited possibilities. It's about unleashing the untamed faith within, as it states on the cover.
McManus says, "If you are a follower of Christ and you have allowed yourself to be domesticated, you have lost the power of who you are and who God intends for you to be. You were not created to be normal. God's desire for you is not compliance and conformity. You have been baptized by Spirit and fire. Asleep within you is a barbarian, a savage to all who love the prim and proper. You must go to the primal place and enter the presence of the Most High God, for there you will be changed by His presence. Let Him unleash the untamed faith within you."
Let me just say that this book is not for the faint of heart, but rather for those who are fed up with living a life of mediocrity and who truly desire a fresh encounter and move of God in your life.
McManus also says, "This is the barbarian way: to give your heart to the only One who can make you fully alive. To love Him with simplicity and intensity. To unleash the untamed faith within. To be consumed by the presence of a passionate and compassionate God. To go where He sends you, no matter the cost."
So if that's you, or that's who you desire to be, I would strongly encourage you to pick up this book...but be careful, because what you gather from it just may completely revolutionize your way of thinking.
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