Spiritual Perspective on Books August 12, 2013 ISSUE

Our own Lazarus awakening

Kim Shippey

Lazarus Awakening: Finding Your Place in the Heart of God
Joanna Weaver
WaterBrook Press, 2011, paperback

In Lazarus Awakening: Finding Your Place in the Heart of God, Joanna Weaver rounds off a trilogy that began with Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, and Having a Mary Spirit: Allowing God to Change Us from the Inside Out.

Although Lazarus doesn’t speak a single word in the Bible, the way Jesus raised him from the dead is one of the most memorable accounts of healing in the New Testament (see John, chapter 11).

Weaver writes: “I believe the story of Lazarus reveals the scandalous availability of God’s love if we will only reach out and accept it. Even when we don’t deserve it. … Even when we can’t figure out His math.”

She describes the Lazarus story as a tender one, yet filled with emotion and dramatic tension. Two sisters torn by grief have to accept that although Jesus loves them, just as he loves Lazarus, he will not be hurried, not even at this crucial moment in their experience. They have to learn to trust Jesus implicitly.

Weaver calls for an “eternal perspective.” Otherwise, she writes, “we’ll tend to become obsessed about success, possessed by our possessions, and addicted to our appetite for more, more, always more.” But this isn’t the life we were made for, she continues. “It’s just another tomb. Better wallpapered, perhaps, with finer furnishings. But still just a tomb.”

As in the other two books in her trilogy, Weaver draws constantly on her firsthand experience as the wife of a church minister and the life they share with their three children in Montana. She readily admits to some missteps and her constant need for renegotiation of her commitments to self and to their community. She has learned that a family grows and changes together, learning to love more through spiritual practice.

Weaver’s 44 pages of appendices, notes, and a study guide—rooted in orthodox Christian beliefs—offer much food for individual reflection and for group discussion. She never hesitates to set short, practical exercises, challenging us, for example, to consider what kind of friend we are. How does our relationship with God play out in our friendships? Are we good listeners, not easily offended, available, kind, trustworthy?

But, for me, one of the book’s key passages comes right at the end on a page that is not even numbered. Weaver speaks directly to her readers, assuring them that God will finish the work He has begun in them (see Philippians 1:6 ). She prays that we will be brought out of our tomb, have our grave clothes unwound, and our lives transformed through “a Lazarus awakening.” She says that this will enable us “to live free and out loud for Him in such a way that the world stands up and takes notice!”

Could there be a finer goal than that?

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