Gifts of the Dark Wood

September 7, 2015
Dante defined the "dark wood" as fearsome. Elnes (Asphalt Jesus) redefines it as a place that gives graceful gifts to Christian believers. Failures, vacuums, and doubts might not seem like "gifts"; however, they cannot (and should not) be avoided, Elnes counsels, because the seeming negatives prove critical for "finding your place in this world at the very point where you feel furthest from it." Seven of the nine chapters in this intelligent and understanding book describe the gifts: uncertainty, emptiness, being thunderstruck (voiceovers by the Holy Spirit), getting lost, temptation, disappearing, and misfits. Some are more surprising than others: for example, temptation does not refer to sex, drugs, and rock ân' roll but to doing the wrong goodâ"work that is not yours to do." Throughout, Elnes shares personal tales, quotes poetry (particularly David Whyte's), and retells Scripture storiesâespecially Peter's. At the end, he movingly addresses the church today. Elnes's style is friendly, familiar, even woodsy, exploiting the second-person "you" to guide and assure.