Barbaric Faith

Friday morning as I walked around my empty home in Dallas looking for things to do, I began the long overdue process of washing the portable mountain of clothes that i've collected over the past couple weeks, I saw a small book nestled among a pile of books under the edge of my brother's bed that he intends to read. I myself had been wanting to read "The Barbarian Way" for some time now and finally had the chance to begin it. So far, the book has called for a re-evaluation to our response to Jesus. McManus says our lives should not lose the raw, energetic emotion that many of us thrived on as new believers, when our devotion to Jesus was in its infancy. He says the Christian culture has tamed our excitement for the work of Christ. This description of the person McManus wants to look like, a rugged, hungry-looking, spontaneous rookie with a heart that is ready to take on all comers, took me straight to the personification of Faith as a virtue by Prudentius. Prudentius, who lived in the early years of the catholic church and is known for his vivid allegorical depiction of war between the virtues and vices, wrote:

  "Faith first takes the field to face the doubtful chances of battle, her rough dress disordered, her shoulders bare, her hair untrimmed, her arms exposed; for the sudden glow of ambition, burning to enter fresh contests, takes no thought to gird on arms or armor, but trusting in a stout heart and unprotected limbs challenges the hazards of furious warfare, meaning to break them down." 

McManus isn't the first to talk about how we should not lose the edginess of the new believer in our faithfulness to Jesus. Beneath what ever doctrine or theology confessed should always be the willingness to drop all we have for His glory to be made known. Nothing about our theology matters if this complete devotion to the Christ is not its source.