Primal - Chapter 1
Today I have the honor of kicking off a book study of Mark Batterson’s “Primal”. People from across the world are involved and the project has been put together by the super-awesome Andy Darnell. If you’re part of the project, welcome, and I hope you enjoy my take on the first chapter. If you’re not involved, I’d encourage you to pick up the book (It’s a super short and great read) and follow along with us. Check out the schedule here.
After reading chapter one, I really found I resonated with almost all of what Mark has said. In a nutshell, Mark says that in order to experience a true, vibrant faith we need to go backwards. Back to the time when our faith was new and full of passion, before it became clouded by the busyness of life and the clutter of organized religion. He narrows it down to a basic flaw in modern day Christianity, and offers the simple solution that to move forward we must actually move backwards.
Mark writes lots of brutally honest tidbits into his first few pages, things that left me restless, because I knew I connected with them. Read the following:
“I couldn’t help but wonder if we had accepted a form of spirituality that is more educated but less powerful.”
“… the accumulated layers of Christian traditions have unintentionally obscured what lies beneath.”
“Many Christians settle for simplicity on the near side of complexity. Their faith is only mind deep.”
“At the heart of the problem is the simple fact that Christians are more known for what we’re against than what we’re for.”
And his final primal problem:
”.. we’re not great at the Great Commandment. In too many instances, we’re not even good at it.”
- quotes from Mark Batterson’s “Primal”
On first read, I formed a post about how these things were true in my life and in my walk as a Christian. How broad the implications were and examples where I saw each being played out. It was a great post.
But I erased it. Because to write something like that would be missing the point.
Instead, I’m going back to the beginning. Back to a time in my life where my faith was simple, primal, and the only things I understood about it were the things that mattered.
I grew up in a non-christian environment, a well to do home but one that didn’t function like a typical family. We went to see a therapist when I was young, he told us we didn’t function like most families, that we were instead “five pillars of isolated individuality functioning under the same roof.” My parents didn’t love each other within my conscious memory, and I ended up leaving the house when I was 16. They divorced and my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after. I became involved in heavy drugs, a regular user of ecstasy and an occasional cocaine user. I was lost.
I became further and further depressed and eventually was checked into the psychiatric ward of my hometown hospital with a suicidal depression.
It in the hospital that Jesus came and found me. I was at the end of my rope, had no where else to go and I knew it. If you’d like to talk more about that experience let me know and we can chat. It was beyond anything I could ever put into text. He renewed me in all ways, physically and mentally over the span of about half a day. He took me to another place, a place where He talked to me without words and showed himself to me. That He loved me, for that’s what He is.
God left me basically with this: “This is who I am and who I want you to be with me. Follow me, if you will. I love you.”
Throughout my entire life, no decision has been more clear.
Eventually I was able to rise from my bed in the incredible afterglow of what had happened and went to my window to look over the city. I saw people in the street underneath me, people driving in their cars, and beyond that the homes of thousands.
In that moment I saw with a clarity I had never known. I knew that all the world’s problems would go away if we all simply loved each other with the same love that God had for each of us.
I had been a Christian for 15 minutes and I knew without reading a single line of the bible the two primal components of our faith. Love God with all you are. Love your neighbor as yourself.
I will never forget that moment. I think then I understood the most clearly God’s intention for us. As I reflect now I long for that time.
I’ve grown and changed, become wiser and shifted a lot of things in my life for the better. But my passion was never stronger than in that moment. Even writing about it brings that essence closer.
I’d encourage you to go back to the time in your life when your faith was primal. I think we learn some of the wisest and truest things in those moments. Things that we should never forget, things that we should consider core values rather than first steps.
Thanks for reading, really looking forward to reading on with you.
