Toward a Cross-Centered Life: Part 3

It wasn't until late September, when I found myself with long, quiet hours to spend at home in prayer, study and reflection, that God started weaving the threads together.

It began, and continued to build, with several blogs that have become my favorites: GirlTalk, SoloFemininity, WorshipMatters, and GospelDrivenLife, among others. Each of these people is tied closely to Sovereign Grace Ministries, an organization I've respected and been drawn to ever since attending one of their conferences a few years ago. And it doesn't take long reading any of them before you notice a common denominator: None of them can stop talking about the gospel. They always come back to it. They apply it to every aspect of life. And it makes them stand out--not in a "trying-to-be-impressive" way, but in a solid, godly, "these people understand something and live something more deeply than most Christians" kind of way. They seem to be following Christ with deep joy, with wholehearted love for the gospel. They seem to have something that a lot of the church is missing. I was irresistibly drawn to it.

As I read John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life and then an advance e-copy of C.J. Mahaney's new book Humility: True Greatness, that theme comtinued. Clearly God was trying to tell me something, to move me in a new--or rather, an original--direction. I wrote then:

Lately it feels like God is taking me back to the basics. As I've grown in my faith over the last eight years, I've sometimes felt proud of myself for studying deep issues or reading profound books or having insightful discussions...now God seems to be gently tugging on my hand, urging me to turn around and look at what brought me here: the cross. And His grace. I think we all get so caught up in our snazzy theology that we lose sight of the main thing.

Suddenly I was longing to step back from all the debates that Christians get into, all the tangent issues that we obsess over, and all the good things that we let become the enemy of the best thing. I was drawn to what I saw in the bloggers mentioned above--the fruit of living what C.J. Mahaney calls a "cross-centered life." I thought I was really beginning to understand it then, but God had much more to show me.

Next: Part 4 - assuming the gospel