This book is subtitled “Seven Blessings for Soulful Skeptics and other Wanderers," and is a guide for a post-Christian world.
Sometimes the dark wood is a place to be feared, but it is the surest place to meet God. In this place you may feel uncertain, tempted and alone. Yes, there is goodness because it is the place that encourages you to probe. You don’t have to be a saint to discover that you are a saint or spiritual mother. All you need to be is to be struggling. To be one who is seeking, all you need is to be is to be a failure, full of darkness, and disappointment. Are you eager to be open to receive
the gifts of the dark wood?
Elnes uses examples from his own life, from his ministry, and from the scripture, wherein he shows how bewilderment can be a blessing; by getting lost one can find the WAY. In the introduction, Elnes answers the question, “ Where do we find ourselves?” Then he develops seven ways one can get lost: uncertainty, emptiness, being thunderstruck,
getting lost, temptation, disappearing, and being misfits. His last chapter answers the question: Where do we go from here?
This book ends with the Phoenix Affirmations: Christian love of God includes:
Walking fully in the path of Jesus
a) Listening to God’s word
b) Celebrating with the God whose story is told in Creation
c) Expressing our love in worship
Christian love of neighbor includes:
a) Engaging people like Jesus did
b) Standing with the outcast like Jesus did
c) Preserving religious freedom
d) Walking humbly with God
Christian love of self includes:
a) Basing our lives on the values of Jesus
b) Claiming the sacredness of our minds and hearts
c) Caring for our bodies, taking time to enjoy the sacred
d) Acting on faith that we are born with a meaning and a purpose
