In His Steps

My husband asked last night what book my first post would be about, and I'm sorry to say that I lied to him. I told him it would be The Paradise War by Stephen Lawhead, since that's what I finished reading yesterday, but it's going to have to wait because today I picked up In His Steps by Charles Sheldon and realized that there's a lot more to this book than I remembered. Of course, the last time I encountered this book I was about 13, and my mom was reading it to me. I don't think I paid attention very well, because I remembered the book being rather boring and I found quite the opposite to be true while rereading it today. The language is a bit dated, but the story moves along fairly quickly and the characters are interesting, if a bit unrealistic. (Honestly, does anyone go to church with an heiress, the best female vocalist in the country, a railroad superintendent, a newspaper editor, a novelist, an extremely successful businessman, and a college president? I could accept 2 or 3 of those together, but not the whole list.)

The saddest moment of the book is when Jasper Chase (the novelist) realizes that his chances with Rachel Winslow (the singer) are completely gone and so he turns his back on his vow to ask "What would Jesus do?" before anything he does. He purposefully continues to write a book that he knows Jesus would not write, and Sheldon quotes Luke 9:62 in which Jesus says that "no man having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God." I had never before seen that verse illustrated so well and I was struck by the intensity of Jasper's loss, and also by the sorrow that Jesus must have felt when he said that. I had always thought that verse was rather condemning and harsh, but in light of Jasper's deliberate decision not to follow Christ, it makes much more sense. Jesus was not saying that if we have doubts we are unfit, but that we are if we start on the way of following Him and then deliberately change our minds.

The paragraph which most struck me is at the end of chapter 13. To quote, "...that obedience to their pledge had produced in the heart of families separation of sympathy and even the introduction of enmity and hatred. Truly, a man's foes are they of his own household when the rule of Jesus is obeyed by some and disobeyed by others." Now, I had a hard time with those sentences because I always believed that if you were doing the will of God, then your family would be pleased and it would create harmony instead of dysfunction. I've learned that this is unfortunately not true, and I've seen families torn apart because one or more members refused to follow Christ's example, but it is hard to understand why God would allow that. In the instance in the book, Alexander Powers (the railroad man) discovers proof of illegal activity within the company. He does the right thing and as a result loses his job, his social standing, and subsequently the love of his wife and daughter. It simply is not fair and makes me mad.

The next two sentences are what particularly caught my attention though. Sheldon says, "Jesus is a great divider of life. One must walk parallel with Him or directly across His way." I have never heard anyone say that before. I have never been told that if I am not walking in His will, following His steps, then I am at cross purposes with Him - there is no middle ground, no wandering along near Him. I am either walking in His way or walking completely opposed to it. That is a strong sentiment, and one I will be spending considerable time contemplating.

I wonder if I am committed enough to make Rev. Henry Maxwell's pledge - for an entire year to do nothing without first asking what Jesus would do. Would the results really be as revolutionary as Sheldon seems to think? How much would it affect our communities if our churches resolved upon that course? Would the social ills of our country be solved by it as Sheldon proposes?