This post is going to be a bit different than normal. I am going to review a book that was sent to me by “WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group” called Primal. Primal – A quest for the lost soul of Christianity was written by my pastor, Mark Batterson. He is the head pastor of National Community Church in the DC area. First off, let me say that I love this church. The heart of the church only reinforces how much I respect and appreciate this book. The things that are said in the book are backed by actions from NCC.

Having said all that let’s move on to the review…

When I first received Primal I had no idea what to expect. I hadn’t really heard anything about the book, but was ready to devour anything from Mark. This book captured my attention by causing me to investigate some basic truths of Christianity. Those beliefs include, but are not limited to, focus, awe of God, passion, love, and dedication to people. Mark really took me back to the “young love” that I had with Jesus when I got saved. I was encouraged to explore that love and delve deeper into why I was originally so excited about God. Don’t get me wrong, I love God, but somewhere along the lines of church busyness and rituals I forgot what it meant to LOVE God with all of my being.

Mark really spurs the reader to use their imagination and creativity to reignite our flame for God. We are encouraged through the physical world to be in AWE of God in a way that we can only respond in silence. We are challenged to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Let me say this, “Love your neighbor…” is such a cliche. If we really loved our neighbors AS ourselves then we wouldn’t see homeless people, prostitution, or poverty etc. This goes well beyond a financial aspect, even though that is part of it. When we genuinely love our neighbor as ourselves we will fight for them, love them, help them, and tell others about them. Mark gives multiple examples of how we can practically do this.

As I mentioned earlier in the post NCC does these things. It was so easy for me to see this in the book because it exudes from Mark’s heart. He is all about God and people. Primal is simply coming to grips with what it means to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Primal love is chasing after the ONE who loved us. I love that the word “Primal” sums up the whole point of the book. Let’s get back to the roots. The most primal aspect of our relationship with God is our love in response to His.

I’m going to quote a small section of the book because I think it is hugely important..

…Hope, Coffe & Melody- they partnered with Compassion International, so after singing, they gave our congregation an opportunity to sponsor a child. Thirty-two dollars a month provides food, education, health care, and most importantly hope! As I stood there singing, I felt like the Spirit of God asked me a question: “Do you think I’d rather hear you sing songs or help these kids?” It broke me. I started crying as I was singing.”

For the longest time I felt as if God cared more about us caring for each other then He did seeing us getting together every week. Please don’t get me wrong, we need church fellowship! BUT for some reason we don’t put enough weight on loving people the way we should. We can love people in fellowship, but we aren’t very good at loving those on the outside. Jesus was pretty clear about his desire for us to take care of one another. There are a ton of “one anothers” in scripture, but they aren’t our passion. Our passions always seem to be about US individually. What is God doing in ME? What is His will for ME? The list goes on, and it almost certainly involves a ME, and not a THEM. Again, we need to love and worship God, but some forms of worship involve serving/loving others. I would venture a guess that our hearts honor God more when we love others in His name then when we just love Him. I hope you all hear my heart and that I’m not saying don’t sing to God or something. Since I finished this book I really want to get back to the “one anothers”.

This book is definitely a must read for the new year. May this year be the year that you find the primal love and passion that our God has for us. May you learn to love people in response to God’s love and not your own.  Ultimately, may you find the heart of God in your everyday life.

Alright I’m slowly coming back to endurelife…I’ll be back in full soon, but for now just wanted to shoot everyone a quick post to say that the Hobab Comic site is back up and has some new comics.

just to give you a taste…

check more out at

http://hobab.endurelife.com/

Dustin

So I branched out of my blog and decided to start a comic website. The comic is called, “I am Hobab” and can be found here http://hobab.endurelife.com I am posting the first one on here just to wet your appetite. I love drawing even though I’m not that talented. hah

issue 1

I love IPOD Rip. They are having a giveaway contest right now! Check it out at http://www.ipodrip.com !

I’m by no means a movie critic. Ok, that is a lie, but I don’t normally write about movies. Last night Whitney and I went to see, “He’s just not that into you”. While I must say it was something to do besides watching TV at home I wouldn’t watch it again. That isn’t because it wasn’t entertaining, but rather what I felt during the movie. 

I think what bothered me so much about this movie was how accurate it was about the American world-view of marriage. For so long men have made jokes about marriage and referred to his wife as the ol’ ball and chain. Women have also made jokes about the laziness of their husbands which often times comes in the form of how he grabs his crotch or how he only likes to watch sports. Neither forms of the jokes are very honoring to the other spouse, and while they are referenced in a joking manner there seems to be genuine sentiment about those issues.

I’m not an expert on marriage, but I have been married for almost 4 years. In those 4 years I have grown lazy in trying to impress my wife or even just trying to be gentlemanly to her as I was before marriage. Last night my eyes were opened a little bit more about how people can have affairs and boring marriages. What seems like a momentary slip of effort or complacency in our love can greatly affect our future care on concern for our marriages. Somewhere down the line one or two socks left on the floor becomes the ammunition to start an apt war or house war in the future. Obviously socks are not the problems…at least I hope they aren’t. It seems that when life moves faster than our love for spouse something is lost. The joy, excitement, anticipation and love that we had for our spouse is now something of a distant memory in our past.

How did we as Americans get to the place where we are “ok” with giving up on love with the ONE we have loved? I’m not going to get into how society affects our view on love, but I will say that our view of society should not be equal with our marriages. If society and life are moving too fast then slow down in your marriage. Marriages should be the driving force in our lives and not the other way around. At what point do we reschedule our lives around our families instead of our families around our lives?

Just somethings to think about for me. I have to remember that the commitment of “I do” doesn’t become an “I did”. To love just as passionately and desire my wife as I did before is where things begin to change. As someone once said, “When women are truly loved the world comes into alignment.” If a woman is truly loved than that man loving becomes the best version of himself. 

May we all be truly loved because of the love that we give.

dustin

Numero Uno! Blog more often! Seriously I will. Once I get back to Maryland I will! Promise.

Updating this site is always easier in my mind. Sorry I’m such a loser

Dustin