The Grand Weaver – review

I wanted to participate in the I Read It! for the 5th Tuesday of September. The struggle of course being finding time to read. I walked back through some of the books they have reviewed on 5 Minutes for Books lately and picked The Grand Weaver by Ravi Zacharias. I have listened to Ravi and even heard him speak at the Ligonier National Conference 2 years ago. He is a great speaker, has wonderful illustrations, and talks to practical topics.

The Grand Weaver is the first book I’ve read by Zacharias. He does a good job with this book in illustrating various areas of our life that God designed and uses to weave our lives.

In the chapter on our DNA he discusses how we should accept and celebrate our personality, that this begins our understanding of the Grand Weaver’s design for our lives. Then he discuss our disappointments, explaining that we need to allow our heart to be made tender by God, not callous, by the pains of this world. Then we must strenghten our mind through faith. And always, the cross should be primary, the bridge between him and us.

The chapter on our calling defines it as “God’s shaping of your burden and beckoning you to your service to him in the place and pursuit of his choosing.” Zacharias mentions that this calling may not always feel pleasing, but it will tug at the soul. We are encouraged to submit to God’s design and live a life of humility.

I found the chapter on morality interesting. We cannot escape the need for morals but there is a lot of discussion about who creates morals. Morality can become legalism if it isn’t tempered with grace and mercy. Zachias mentions that perhaps the point to some of the parables isn’t what appears to be the main point. Perhaps the older brother was the real point to the story of the prodigal son. I find the story of repentance and acceptance (younger son and father) very reassuring, but the action of the older brother hits too close to home sometimes. Or maybe the real point of the stofy of the good Samaritan is the priest and Levite and their behavior. He uses another one – maybe the point to be learned from the women arriving first at the tomb was the fact that the disciples hadn’t. I think this one is the most surprising for me. I’ve always been amazed that the women were headed to the tomb even though they were aware that there was a big stone they couldn’t move, they trusted that a way to handle it would come up as long as they did what they needed to do. I wonder if the disciples didn’t go because they knew there was this big stone in the way?

The chapter on spirituality gets to the point that it is truth what separates true spirituality from false spirituality. We are warned not to get sidetracked by ceremony or legalism. He discusses our will and how salvation also brings a change in our hungers. We will new things. But in our fallenness we often put our energy into peripheral or wrong pursuits instead of concentrating on following Christ alone.

We are made to worship, it seems. But our worship belongs to God and we are too quick to turn to other things. In this chapter Zacharias talks about the church and how we are supposed to build each other up, bring hope and healing to each other. But too often there is pulling down, condemnation, and reprimand. Worship is primary and here Zacharias uses the imagery again, worhip “pulls the many threads of life into a beautiful whole.”

He ends with a chapter about our Destiny; our eternal life in heaven being known by God and knowing God. I have always thought the image of being completely known is one of the most comforting allures of Heaven. I seldom feel truly understood and often don’t understand myself. To be known completely by a loving God, and perfected to boot, sounds wonderful!

I am glad I read this book and found much to meditate on. I found his writing to be a bit distracted and had to search for his point a few times. He speaks much the same way, the stories and illustrations may be disconnected, but each is worthwhile and the effort required by the listener to interpret the whole out of the pieces is a good exercise.