In an attempt to cling onto the last vestiges of my holiday, and following Andrew Wilson’s example from the ThinkTheology blog on Monday, here’s one paragraph/extract that stood out to me from my holiday reading.
The book – a fixture on my ‘must read’ list for too many years – was Jackie Pullinger’s Chasing the Dragon.
It was, as I knew it would be, a fascinating and inspiring read; a window into a world far beyond my experience and comprehension.
It was, as I suspected it would be, so packed with the miraculous works of God in such an extraordinary situation that I struggled to connect it with my world and my surroundings. The stories of hardened gang members, drug addicts and prostitutes calling on the name of Jesus after a brief conversation with Jackie and immediately being flooded with the Spirit, speaking in tongues, interpreting each other’s prayers and being healed and freed painlessly from drug addiction just doesn’t sound like the way God uses me, or the way things work in SW1*.
Biographies like this always strike me as true, but not real.
The section that impacted me, though, was from the introduction. Jackie writes:
Of course, ‘Chasing the Dragon’ backfired on me. I had written it in the hope of recording history and inspiring hope. Having disposed of one decade I had hoped to get on with more life. Instead I was invited to retell the story again and again, whereas I had meant that you, who read it, might see that the same God could impart His heart and His power in your city and you would write your own books.
… There are many more adventures to be had. There are many more battles to be fought. It would be such fun to be in them rather than read of them.
Go! Write your own books. Go!
Have these few lines changed me? Not quite. Not yet.
Have they challenged me? Undoubtedly.
Read it. It will astonish you afresh with the power of our God – then let me know when you write your book…
*My postcode in Central London
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Image Credit: Kowloon Walled City (detail) by Christopher Lance (Creative Commons)
This post first appeared on ThinkTheology.
on Sep 6th at 6:38 pm
You know you’re a Londoner when you start referring to your location by your postcode…. you know you’re posh when your postcode has a single number, and it’s a 1!