Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Love Dare Part 19: The Altar Call

"Look back over the dares from previous days.  Were there some that seemed impossible to you?  Have you realized your need for God to change your heart and to give you the ability to love?  Ask Him to how you where you stand with Him, and ask for the strength and grace to settle your eternal destination."

I had to take some time off to consider how to respond to this dare.  The chapter that accompanies it is an unabashed altar call.  Which I found odd, since the main market for this book is Christians.  It reminded me of the times in youth group when the youth leader would issue a kind of altar call to a group of kids who were already attending youth group 2-3 times a week.  If we weren't Christians, I don't know what was wrong with us.  It felt to me that I should constantly be questioning myself, wondering if I should respond to these altar calls or not.  After all, the youth leader kept making them to the same group of us and I hadn't gone yet.  Maybe he knew something about my faith that I didn't.

The point of this chapter was that all these dares, all these challenges, and the love that they spring forth from(or the love that is supposed to spring forth from them), are impossible by yourself.  Only through the love that comes through salvation are they possible.

Anyway, when I reflected upon the previous dares I had no trouble at all doing them.  So if I were to take this as a measure of my faith then I'm doing great.

This sort of "dare" really tries my patience.  Yet another Christian bait & switch.  The book presents itself as something to help all marriages, but it's really just another religious book that wants to tell me how weak my faith is and how much I need Jesus.

Look, I know I need Jesus.  In fact, I know it so well I went ahead and got Him.  I don't need a book that says it's about my marriage but then switches it around halfway through.  Next thing you know this book will be telling me how much I hate my father and that Morpheus has the secret to modern manhood.

The next 21 dares are going to be rough.  Hopefully the book improves.

If you still want to buy The Love Dare, do so at Amazon.

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