Today I received my copy of Leighton Ford's The Attentive Life: Discerning God's Presence in All Things (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2008). This is the book Mason Smith has recommended for those of us in a small Sunday School class that meets in the undercroft of First United Methodist Church, Richmond, Kentucky.Inasmuch as I'm not a typical evangelical (for me, the word evangelical is always hyphenated with the word catholic so as to describe one who is evangelical-catholic), I must confess that although I faintly knew that Leighton Ford is an evangelist, long associated with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, it came as something of a surprise (oh, heck, say "big surprise"!) to find out that Ford's Attentive Life is a wonderfully compelling invitation to a life of prayer he discovered at Mepkin Abbey by the Cooper River in South Carolina. With chapter subtitles like "ONE WHO PAID ATTENTION: Simone Weil on a Postage Stamp," one quickly intuites that Ford knows how to share the "hours" with witful intelligence, charm, and winsome conviction.
While I've only begun to dip into this delightfully well-written book (and will certainly plunge into it more fully tonight), I must tell you that I think nearly everyone will enjoy it, find it exceptionally helpful in encouraging an attentive prayer life, and provide any group with a host of insights, provocations, and layered viewpoints for discussion. I'm delighted that we're about to discuss the book at some length. Thanks, Mason, for suggesting that we read it.
4 comments:
I much appreciate having found your website. I've been wanting to share with someone who might really understand my struggle or be able to point me in a helpful direction. After reading your post on "Jesus Creed" I was wishing I could actually communicate with you what's up with me and where my journey has been.
I've been wanting to do so with people I know, but the one who I think could help the most is older and limited with a wife who recently experienced a minor stroke and is soon to have brain surgery.
It's too bad we don't have more masters and directors for others, of the spiritual life, as Bernard was, and still is for many, and as Leighton Ford himself has seen the importance of, I take it.
Dear Ted, my apologies for not getting back to you immediately. We have company this weekend, and this quite wonderful early hour (I think one of the Psalms calls it the "opening of dawn's eyelid") is the first opportunity I have to promise you more personally a soon-to-be written email. Sensing that you have read my comments about Chrysalis on McKnight's Jesus Creed with a brother's understanding, I'll be sure to sit down with some online coffee in a minute or so and begin staying in touch.
Thanks much, Andy.
This morning I need to be in Lexington and will not be able to discuss Ford's TAT with my Richmond friends at First United Methodist Church. I'm trusting that Mason, Harry, Shannon, and Bill will encourage one another with insightful comments that somehow I hope to hear about.
This morning I managed to be up well before dawn and, with prayerbook in hand, said hello to God's dawn. And then I simply sat and watched the eyelid of the morning slowly open. Aware that God was watching, I watched with him. A good beginning.
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