The Crime of Living Cautiously: Hearing God's Call to Adventure - Hardcover

Shaw, Luci

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0830832807 ISBN 13: 9780830832804

Publisher: IVP, 2005

Synopsis

Unexpectedly, the moment of opportunity comes to us--the prospect of entering a reality larger than we'd guess. A spacious option opens up before us, an urgent demand that seems to call for special enterprise, life-threatening perils or summons to action. Suddenly we realize that such a chance might never come again. What do you do when faced with such a moment? Do you sometimes get frozen into a state of inaction? Do you wonder if you are wasting the talents God has given you? Or if you enjoy adventure, do you struggle over whether a risk is just a reckless attempt to feed your own needs or a true calling from God? Luci Shaw has learned to act with discernment in regard to motivation and calling. She has discovered a path of deep joy and fulfillment by risking the unknown in partnership with God. In this book you will find the way to break through the fear barrier and follow God to new levels.

About this title

About the Author:

Luci Shaw is a poet, essayist, lecturer and writer-in-residence at Regent College, Vancouver. Widely anthologized, her writing has appeared in numerous literary and religious journals and she has coauthored three books with Madeleine L'Engle. A founding member of the Chrysostom Society of Christian Writers, Shaw is the author of ten volumes of poetry and other titles such as Adventure of Ascent, Breath for the Bones: Art, Imagination & Spirit, Harvesting Fog, Scape, Water My Soul: Cultivating the Interior Life and The Crime of Living Cautiously. Shaw is a frequent retreat facilitator and leads writing workshops in church and university settings. She has lectured in North America and abroad on topics such as art and spirituality, the Christian imagination, poetry-writing and journal-writing as an aid to artistic and spiritual growth. She is poetry editor and a contributing editor of the quarterly journal Radix that celebrates art, literature, music, psychology, science and the media. She is also poetry and fiction editor of Crux, an academic journal published quarterly by Regent College. In 2013 she received the Denise Levertov Award for Creative Writing from Seattle Pacific University and Image, and her papers are preserved in the Luci Shaw Collection at Wheaton College's Buswell Library. Shaw lives in Bellingham, Washington, with her husband John Hoyte.

Review:

This book offers vivid insight into the challenges Christians face and the risks we are called to take as faithful believers. It points the way to a richer experience in Christian living as we learn to embrace risk as a moment of opportunity to respond to God's call. (Elizabeth Pearson for The Christian Librarian, volume 50.1, 2007)

"I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've been a fan of her poetry for many years; now she challenges me to live life on the edge. Bungee jumping at her age? I can feel the collective eyebrows rising. . . . "I, for one, needed the reminder that the Holy Spirit is often a cultural nonconformist, and the Christian life is meant to be innovative and exhilarating, a breathtaking journey; those opposed to risk need not apply." (David McFadzean, Wind Dancer Productions)

"Strap in and launch yourself into wild blue yonder with Luci Shaw. Like all good poets she revels in paradox, which is why she understands the spiritual life as both stillness and movement, contemplation and adventure. As a spiritual test pilot, Luci Shaw has the right stuff." (Gregory Wolfe, Editor, Image journal)

"I have known Luci Shaw first as a poet whose poetry invited attentiveness to specific moments, particular textures--in nature and in domestic spaces I recognized and loved; then I came to know her as a friend with a bracing, exuberant embrace of life which constantly challenged me to press on. Now, in these pages, she dashes on ahead and calls back over her shoulder, 'Dare! Double dare!' Here is an answer to pallid Christianity: as Luci richly demonstrates, living incautiously opens up all kinds of opportunities. Go ahead--read this book, be changed and challenged as l always am by reading Luci Shaw. I dare you." (Maxine Hancock, Ph.D., professor of interdisciplinary studies and spiritual theology, Regent College)

"Whirling in midair, Luci Shaw cries to us to stop clinging to our perches and leap out into wind-borne flight. This widow/poet/grandmother/gardener/bungee-jumper hammers on our fear-shackles and sings of a joyful, faith-full adventure beyond." (John G. Stackhouse Jr., Sangwoo Youtong Chee Professor of Theology and Culture, Regent College, Vancouver, Canada)

"Luci Shaw does not live cautiously--her life is an exuberant romp in the things of creation. Nor does she write cautiously--her poetry is a dive into a pool of spirited (Spirit!) language. This witness, a fusion of personal stories and revealing poems, welcomes us into the fullness into which Christ calls us." (Eugene Peterson, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College)

About this edition

• Publisher: IVP
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0830832807
• ISBN 13: 9780830832804
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 140