Book Review: The Making of an Ordinary Saint

Last fall, a friend posted a book recommendation on Facebook for Mark Buchanan's book, God Walk. She had heard about it in a podcast interview on the Renovare Podcast, hosted by Nathan Foster. After gleaning so much from God Walk, I listened to the podcast. During that interview, someone mentioned Nathan Foster's book, The Making of an Ordinary Saint: My Journey from Frustration to Joy With the Spiritual Disciplines. I requested this book for Christmas, since prayer is one of the spiritual disciplines I am currently pursuing with abandon.

I'm not sure what I was expecting. The book covers 12 spiritual disciplines. Sadly, the section on prayer netted not a single note in my note-taking. I gleaned things from other sections. Nathan Foster is the son of Richard J. Foster, who authored The Celebration of Discipline. I know he wasn't seeking the success of his dad's book, but trying his own hand at living out the spiritual disciplines his father famously outlined. When you read further into the book, you realize he is ordinary. He is not some saint to follow. He is honest and vulnerable, sharing his earlier struggles with addiction and personal insecurities. I would say he is a down-to-earth author.

The first discipline mentioned is submission. I appreciated his observation that there is freedom in not insisting on your own way. In the section on fasting, I found a principle I had encountered in Dear Dana, by Amy Weinland Daughters. In similar words, Foster expressed of Sundar Singh, "He felt that the weaker his body grew when he fasted, the more spiritually attentive he became." Despite great hopes for fasting with my prayer project, I failed to follow-through (perhaps this is part of the draw of reading this book - I need more discipline).

I noted his comments about our own self-hatred when we don't follow through. He said, "I felt God's gift of grace had to be repaid with my works... the subconscious assumption that God's continued love was contingent upon my behavior, as if I could make Him stop loving me." My church of origin ingrained this in me from an early age. They believe that, "Continuance in the state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ." I am now convinced that when we recognize our sin and our need for his sacrifice to save us, we are born again. It is a spiritual birth into His family. We become His children. His DNA flows through our veins. Nothing will sever the gift of eternal life He has given. It is eternal, not temporary until we walk away. The abovementioned doctrine leads to a sense of self-sufficiency. If we rely on our own obedient faith to "keep" our salvation, we are trusting in our own righteousness, not His righteousness. If there is anything the law has taught, it is that we are incapable of following sufficiently to maintain our salvation. Sorry for that passionate aside.

Finally, I appreciated several of his comments on our compulsion to instruct others. At one point, he observes, "When I don't like something about myself, I feel a strange compulsion to teach others what they need to change." Ouch! Further on, he writes, "So often, in our need to work out our own experiences, we feel compelled to be the bearer of guidance or advice to others." Sadly, I've been on both the bearing end and the receiving end of unsolicited advice.

The main emphasis Foster makes is that we need to live out the spiritual disciplines. If we look at them as a to-do list, we become like Pharisees. It will take a lifetime to grow more and more like Christ. Thankfully, we are not responsible to "do the work." For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13 (KJV)