So I have just started reading the book Beautiful Outlaw and I love it! I discovered John Eldredge about 10 years ago when I picked up “Wild at Heart”. As I read this book I found myself conflicted. My heart was saying “Yes, this is amazing!” But my religious mind and background said, “This isn’t realistic. This would change everything. John is too ‘out there’.” But I’m so glad that God kept bringing this message back to me.
Through the years, I’ve been equally impacted by other of John’s writing such as “Way of the Wild Heart” and “Love and War”. Whenever I have picked up a book of John’s, it seems like it confirms the words that the Holy Spirit has been speaking to me.
One of John’s best qualities as a writer is to be a bridge between old and new. He will be quoting from George MacDonald one minute and then make a cultural reference to the movie “Saving Private Ryan” the next. So many authors can play well in either of those spaces, but not both. John can.
I also felt like I got to know John and his team a little bit better by listening to the podcasts through Ransomed Heart. Here, I was able to hear how John and the team interacted by joking, flowing with God, laughing, ministering, etc.
All this being said, when I hear that John was writing a new book, I was excited. But I also tempered my expectations. Sometimes when a writer puts out material frequently, there are times that their output becomes “crap” instead of continuing the quality of previous messages. However, as I read “Beautiful Outlaw”, I found that it was not only very “un-crappy”, but it also, again, confirms what the Lord has been speaking to me about.
To quote John himself from the 1st chapter:
“…millions of people who have spent years attending church, and yet they don’t know God. Their heads are filled with stuffing about Jesus, but they do not experience him…there are millions more who love Jesus Christ but experience him only occasionally, more often stumbling along short of the life he promised…if you sent someone you loved to school for a decade, yet they remained illiterate, how would you feel about the education?”
Growing up, I was surrounded by well-meaning people that you were so concerned about getting God’s name correctly that they many times were less focused on having a relationship with the One whose name they so loved and defended. Oh, they knew about Him, they could quote His written words from the Bible, but they very often didn’t hear His voice unless it was read in the Bible or from a preacher at a pulpit. But if you don’t prioritize hearing His voice for yourself and focus on getting to know Him (intents, personality, etc.), then we will miss Him and all that we could have together. For the folks I grew up with, they fell into the trap of interpreting random verses of the Bible to mean that God had a dress code and called it holiness, but they miss the fact that the only time Jesus addressed outward appearance is when He told the Pharisees, “you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy – full of greed and wickedness”.
As you read through “Beautiful Outlaw”, you see how John highlights the personality of Jesus, including areas such as fierce intention, disruptive honesty, cunning, playful, etc. As you read verses of the Bible such as where Jesus said to the Canaanite woman “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs”, we are tempted to take this to mean that Jesus was being hard on her (waiting for her to come back a 2nd time so He could commend her on her faith). However, as John says “what if Jesus was being playful – well that would change everything”.
I would encourage you to read this book and open yourself up to the personality of Jesus.
