Lenten thoughts on holiness, part 2 Review of Josh Nadeau’s Room for Good Things to Run Wild (2024)

 


     Josh Nadeau’s Room for Good Things to Run Wild (2024) is a long-awaited breath of fresh air…and hope.  Having grown up with a legalistic approach to holiness which largely consisted in external conformity to rules most of which, as it turns out, aren’t “biblical”, I haven’t really known how to think about holiness for a long time.  As a kid/teenager, it was No smoking, No drinking, No TV, No video games, No books of fantasy, No Disney movies, No sex before marriage, No “work” on Saturdays (i.e. the Sabbath), No missing Sunday morning church services, No…nothing (or so it seemed).  Though I did take up moderate social consumption of alcohol as a young adult, and though I am now an unashamed cinephile and lover of fantasy literature, I have never indulged in the typical “vices” of “the world”.  But does that make me a holy person?  Surely being a “saint” is more than the simple avoidance of certain forbidden activities?

     As G.K. Chesterton once said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult, and left untried”.  Or, as Eric Metaxas has summed up the thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin and more about courageously and actively doing God’s will”.  While there is a certain type of personality that finds comfort in abiding by a set of arbitrary rules, fastidious commandment-keeping can all too often be a mask for the vice of cowardice (cf. Rev. 21.8).  It takes guts to be a saint, and passive personality-types (like myself) must be transfigured into brave souls who will embark on the adventure of holiness.  Cue Josh Nadeau.

     In this honest, raw spiritual autobiography (cf. Augustine’s Confessions, Merton’s Seven-story Mountain, Lewis’ Surprised by Joy, etc.), Josh tells the tale of his rediscovery of God’s grace and a truly life-giving, transformative way of discipleship that often proves elusive to so many of us long-time Christians.  As becomes painfully clear from the opening lines of his book, Josh’s conventional Christian life – marriage, job, church attendance /involvement, theology degree (!) – was simply a mask for the spiritual/ existential/moral mess he was in.  Indeed, Josh’s “Christian life” at that point only served to exacerbate his struggles, as fellow believers “coached” him to simply try harder, to pray more, to read more of the Bible, etc.  Sound familiar?  The harder he tried, the worse things got, as what he perceived as his repeated “spiritual failures” drove Josh to drown his despair in his vice of choice – alcoholism.  Josh’s book is the story of how he went from being a drunk, hypocritical, aimless, confused, messed-up Christian to a disciple who is acutely aware of both his weaknesses /vulnerabilities as well as the mercy of God, the power of the Spirit, and the love of Jesus.

     Before making the mistake of dismissing this “testimony” as cringingly cliché, read the book, share Josh’s journey from the despair of “faking holiness” to the experience of the genuine article in the ordinary events of everyday life – on the job, on the street, in the home and in your hobbies and friendships.  This is a book for ordinary saints – for those of us (like me) who desire to taste the reality of what our Christian faith promises to all those who commit to following the way of Jesus – abundant life and true peace and contentment.  If you’re sick and tired of being (spiritually) sick and tired, Tolle lege![1]  You and I are called to be saints.  The good news is that it is indeed possible.  Jesus beckons us to begin the journey right where we are.  Are you not/ready?


[1] In Augustine’s Confessions, he describes the experience of hearing a child’s voice say this Latin phrase which means “Take up and read!”.  What he took up was Romans 13.13-14, which convicted him to the point of fully committing to the life of discipleship.

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