Are You Running with Me, Jesus?: A Spiritual Companion for the 1990s

Wow. I can't believe only one other person has reviewed this. I picked up this book looking for some direction to living out my newfound faith and belief that was most akin to my own inquisitive nature, and was overall impressed with Malcolm Boyd's approach to speaking to the Lord Jesus. There is a certain poetry and eloquence to much of it that I'm sure was intentional and makes it more accessible ("Save us from ourselves; spare us the evil of our hearts' good intentions, unbrideled and mad..."), but more than just hollow, pretty words, its really the searching, the uncertainty, the humanity in it all that seems most close to how the average Christian prays on their own. I'd reccommend this. It was what I was looking for. Boyd writes at one point "I want to pray in my doing and being, Jesus". These are words I've absorbed into my own daily prayers.

Now celebrating its 40th anniversary edition, Are Your Running With Me, Jesus? by ordained Episcopalian priest Malcolm Boyd is a groundbreaking treasury. Daring to break with the formal patterns of the era, Boyd's prayers are in a conversational tone, centered upon Jesus Christ as a compassionate Savior to whom one can pray about anything, lofty or trivial. This new edition of Are You Running With Me, Jesus? has the more outdated linguistic forms updated, and the prayers made obsolete by topicality removed. A true devotional classic, highly recommended for all Christians. "When a mind is closed and communication has ceased, how may a person be reached? If one's heart has never learned to love, or has stopped loving, how may the heart be taught, Jesus?"

I remember how, in the mid sixties, when the first edition of this book came out it was widely assumed that God was remote and should be addressed in some pseudo-King James English monotone. Malcolm Boyd was one of the prophets who reveiled to us that God is with us and we can talk to God one-on-one with openness and honesty. Malcolm's writing was such a burst of fresh air to me that, at age 15, after reading for a while I sat for probably two hours or so just opening my heart to God. I talked and talked like I'd never talked to anyone. Silently, in my parents' living room. It changed my whole outlook on God, religion, and life. I could never go back to churchianity or dogmatism. God is alive. How can you go back after learning that? Now Malcolm is in his 80s and still teaching us that God really loves us. How dare he! The heathen! ;-)

This book is as tremendous in 2002 as it was back in the 1960's. Boyd displays an honesty of faith and integrity that is jarring and refreshing, and shows that one can indeed approach God with all that s/he is and all that s/he feels. This book goes with me wherever I go, and I recommend it to all. I find it especially appropriate for those who carry the name of Christ but often find themselves outside the sanction of the established church. It should be back in print!