About the Book:
Discover how to fulfill the truest and deepest longings of your heart when you encounter the powerful and healing presence of Jesus.
New York Times bestselling author John Eldredge reveals the path of the “ordinary mystic,” and invites you into the refuge of experiencing deep, lasting, real communion with Jesus.
In this present age, we are all becoming disciples of the Internet. We are addicted to distraction. We idolize our instant access to a never-ending avalanche of information. We think we’re finally holding the keys to a better life. But if that’s true, why are we wrestling with ever-increasing levels of anxiety, dissatisfaction, and despair? The fact is, we live in a world of weary, skeptical pragmatism–and it’s keeping us from experiencing the God we are dying without.
In Experience Jesus. Really. John Eldredge guides you to a beautiful alternative to the soulless, disenchanted existence you find yourself living in today: the path of the “ordinary mystic.” To walk this path means to experience the daily presence of God, as did David, Daniel, Esther, Isaiah, Christ’s disciples, and Paul . . . all the way back to Adam and Eve in Eden. When you join John on this journey, you will find stories, practices, and prayers to help you:
- Recover your capacity to believe again
- Take refuge in the mighty presence of God that surrounds you all the time
- Discover the exquisite comfort of actual communion with Jesus every day
- Connect with ancient, biblical ways to heal your soul, protect your family, and revive your faith
- Learn practices, habits, and prayers that will transform your ability to hear the voice of Jesus in your day-to-day life
Every human yearns to return to Eden, to a state of unbroken communion with the God who created us for adventure and intimacy with him. The mystic is awake to the truth that God is still with us–and we experience the refuge of his powerful, healing presence if we learn to open our hearts to him. This book is your invitation to experience the everyday refuge, strength, and wonder available to the friends of Jesus.
My Thoughts
I received this book as a digital pre-release and dived in. A handful of chapters in I would say that it was impactful and gave me a lot to think about, but the version I received hadn’t been fully formatted yet and I found it hard to read, causing me to lag behind in my reading.* So, I recently bought the hardback and started over. I know enough to know it’s a book worth owning. I’m not to the end yet. I’m taking the slow and steady pace the author recommends, but I want to tell you about the book before we get too far from the release date.
Even re-reading the early chapters a second time has given me a lot to think about.
The way Eldredge describes how we have become disciples of the internet is spot on, even for people like me who try hard to avoid screens as much as humanly possible these days. There is no escaping how the world we live in is shaping us, but there is hope.
The theme of friendship with God and the expectation of real and expectant relationship with the Trinity is a topic that is near to my heart. And while I’m comfortable diving into the writings of early believers who often wrote about these things, Eldredge has taken the heart of the matter and made it accessible to the modern reader. He engages with the Scripture and challenges the reader with the reality that refuge can be found. In fact, refuge must be found if we are to experience the communion that the death, burial and resurrection of Christ offers to us.
There is so much that is good and helpful for faith and hope in Jesus in these pages and I haven’t even reached the end yet. I think this book could be life-changing to those who will really consider its words.
*(I’m sure that the formatting issues from the unpublished version have been fixed in the published digital version. I just decided I wanted to purchase the hard copy instead.)
