Primal

I'm not one to make New Years resolutions. But usually by this time every year I start anticipating the New Year.

About 10 years ago we started attending a church where the Pastor encouraged us to spend the first week of the New Year in prayer and fasting. He has since left the church, but it is a tradition I carry on. It's probably my favorite week out of the year.

Every year leading up to it it seems like God speaks a word or two into my spirit that will be the prayer focus of the next year. The last few weeks I've felt it beginning, but it wasn't until this last week that it all came together.

There is a Holy dissatisfaction in my soul. A longing for something I can't quite name. Mark Batterson figured it out for me and his new book, I'm sure, will be the theme of 2010 for me.

The book is called Primal and it's all about returning to the roots of Christianity. I'm reading his words with tears streaming down my face because finally someone has put into words the longing I've been wrestling with in my heart.

I talk to people everyday who are frustrated with "religion". It seems to me as if God is trying to re-awaken His children to a deeper passion than we've recently known.

Batterson writes: “The Holy Spirit reminded me of the raw spiritual intensity I once had. He revealed how calloused my heart had become. And I realized that I had somehow lost my soul while serving God. And it wrecked me. I realize that in many ways I had become a paid professional Christian.”

For weeks now these words have haunted me. It's time to return to that place.

So... no resolutions. Just a returning. To the Primal roots of our faith. Are you with me?


You can read the first chapter of Primal here:
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9781601421319&view=excerpt