Book Review: Swimming Against the Current

Swimming Against the Current: Living for the God You Love, by Chris Blake

This book is a collection of (mostly) short essays and stories about the Christian life. Just about every one contains something that made me want to highlight, bookmark, and share with someone. (Of course if I did, it would have taken me so much longer to finish and would have defeated the point of highlighting and marking.) I've got about two dozen stickies in the book marking some of the most insightful items. I've read a number of the pieces or excerpts from some during Sabbath School and Worship. Many lend themselves well to uses as illustrations in a larger setting or devotional thought pieces used by themselves.

The book itself is organized into three parts: Do Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With Your God. Each part contains chapters that attempt to describe what each of those might look like in the real world. Some of them are visionary. Others make observations about the dichotomies between what actually is and what Jesus and the Bible actually say. And others challenge conventional thinking and classical theological views. Many of the chapters articulate much more clearly, much more graciously, and much more humorously thoughts that are in my mind but I haven't really been able to put into words.

There are chapters that deal with some of the more controversial topics: homosexuality; the meaning of "sanctuary;" the nature of "truth;" the institutionalization of Adventism; the importance of doctrines and distinctiveness; the implications of true freedom and liberty.

The pervading theme of the book is that those who really want to follow Jesus, who really want to draw closer to God, should examine their beliefs, methods, and actions to see if they are simply conforming to what society, government, and churches say they should believe and do. Simply swimming with the current doesn't necessarily bring a person closer to God. Most of the time, it does not. To really get to know and to see God better often means to turn the accepted values and norms upside down and swim against the current.