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(Ada, Michigan: Baker Publishing Group, 2014)
272 pgs
Daniel Henderson has been a favorite writer for me over the past several years, most significantly because of his passionate pursuit of God’s heart through prayer and his desire to affect spiritual leaders and local churches by sharing the truths God has deposited in his life.
In his book, “The Deeper Life”, Daniel takes readers on a journey of personal discovery, focused on living out the answers to life’s key questions, set in our hearts by the God who created us and calls us to experience life to the fullest.
Beginning with the spiritual truth from Ecclesiastes 3:11 that “He (God) has put eternity in their hearts”, Henderson poses eight questions at the heart of the book that assist us in getting at the common (universal) spiritual longings that God has placed within each person. He states, “We all yearn for a compelling mission in life. If only we could figure out what it is supposed to be! We feel the need to be guided by a clear set of values and long to leave a lasting legacy, but lose our way in the fog of daily distractions. Disoriented, we don’t know which direction to go.” As one Stanford University professor concludes, “We have become suckers for irrelevancy”. As Henderson notes, the decisions we make about where we find meaning and mission in our lives will have powerful impact, not only on our personal spiritual journey, but “the health of our relationships, the well-being of our families, and the destiny of our earthly journey”.
In “The Deeper Life”, Henderson uses three ideals to serve as the foundation from which will then flow the key questions that assist us in discovering answers to the core spiritual longings God has placed in each of us:
“Worship: The FUEL for a Deeper Life”
“Worship begins with a biblical and ultimately practical understanding of the
character of God. It results in a life of wholehearted surrender and sacrifice.
I define worship as ‘the response of all I am to the revelation of all that God is.’”
“Integrity: The FIBER of a Deeper Life”
Drawing from David’s words in Psalm 15:2, Henderson shares “This is the
picture of the blameless life. We see a person who always seeks to do the right
thing. He is empowered for righteousness because he tells himself the truth in
the depths of his being…To do this, we need the wisdom and power of the Holy
Spirit.”
“Nonconformity: The FRUIT of a Deeper Life”
Romans 12:1-2 serves as the basis for this foundational aspect of the deeper life.
“Nonconformity flows from authentic worship as the fruit of regular transforming
renewal…you don’t have to fit into the world’s fleeting and irrelevant systems.”
From this foundation, Daniel proceeds to set in front of the reader key longings that God has placed in our hearts and questions designed to “address the deepest needs and questions of the soul”. What follows is a brief synopsis (taken from pages 22-23 of “The Deeper Life”) of the longings and the questions the author uses to assist us in moving toward personally embracing the specific expressions of those longings and integrating them into our daily living.
1. The Longing – To know and experience God in the fullness of His person and presence
*The Question: Who is God?
2. The Longing – To live from an authentic core of biblical self-understanding and security
*The Question: Who am I?
3. The Longing – To give one’s life to a worthy cause
*The Question: Why am I here?
4. The Longing – To be respected as a person of sound principles and solid character
*The Question: What really matters?
5. The Longing – To focus on and fulfill rewarding and meaningful commitments
*The Question: What shall I do?
6. The Longing – To enjoy strategic and effective accomplishment of worthwhile objectives
*The Question: How shall I do it?
7. The Longing – To be a faithful steward of eternally significant opportunities
*The Question: When shall I do it?
8. The Longing – To be remembered as a person of extraordinary contribution
*The Question: How will I finish?
To assist the reader in personalizing these longings and answers to their individual lives, Henderson provides “Purpose Discovery Exercises” at the end of the book along with multiple appendices that include, among others, his personal value statements, those of his family, along with supplemental material to challenge the reader in reflecting on God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
While I have considered what I would affirm as “crucial life questions” or “core values to live by”, this book sets that personal pursuit in an orderly, sensible, comprehensive context that would enable anyone to get at the issues that resonate in each of our souls. Built around simply stated questions, the reader is ushered into a look deep within, encouraged to address what really matters and challenged to embrace the eternal and release the temporal – freed to be all God made you to be! A good and helpful read; a necessary read for anyone pursuing a deeper life!
by Rick Fisher