Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle: Living Fully, Loving Dangerously

I will teach a course in Radical Christianity next fall and have been looking for books for the class. This book will definitely be on the syllabus. Annan's book is interesting, challenging, beautifully written, and meaningful. It will provide fodder for many excellent discussions, I am sure.

Annan's memoir is both good-humored and dangerous, realistic and hopeful. You may very well find yourself transformed with the author, or at least seeking such a transformation, which is no small step. Scales fell from my eyes that I didn't even know were there. Reader beware.

I loved this book. I was stunned by small details: taking four different modes of transport to get from home to work; watching wealthy folks on a cruise ship at port in Haiti, from behind a chain-link fence; a poor Haitian, a new acquaintance, paying 14 cents on behalf of a couple of Americans for their taxi ride; an explosion of generosity from poor Haitians on a bus for an even poorer countryman, left destitute by a flood -- the weaving of 'the good' and 'the bad' seen daily, often minute by minute in this frustrating, marvelous, angry, beautiful, sad and vibrant country. Kent Annan is a remarkable tour guide, not just of Haiti, but of poverty and plenty, of good intentions and good actions, of what it means to truly live an abundant life, no matter where you live.

This book is very readable, despite its challenging content. I've wanted to know more about Haiti for a long time. It's so close to the U.S. after all, yet before I read this book, I wouldn't have been able to tell you very much about it. Kent Annan's book is an inspiring, challenging, and hopeful way to do just that: learn about our neighbors, how they've been loving, and how we can learn from them. I love Annan's honesty--this book is about real people in a real marriage working out what it means to take Jesus seriously. You won't expect to chuckle out loud as much as you do, as well as tear up at some of the examples of humility and generosity Annan's Haitian friends display. I got a bunch of copies of this book to give as Christmas presents this year because I know it will be a meaningful gift to my family and friends during a season that makes that eye of the needle seem smaller than ever. I highly recommend it!

For me this book is about the wrestling. On each page Kent Annan is struggling and grasping and sweating and squirming in ongoing matches with himself, a ravaged country, his future, and God. I was exhausted and strangely comforted reading it. I am one of those cliché minivan Costco moms, but I, too, am wrestling. I squirm when I think about the subtitle of this book "Living Fully. Loving Dangerously." I struggle trying to figure out how to love the poor from my cozy home in the suburbs. I am afraid to enter into danger and fight against being pulled into it. I am seeking to learn what God wants me to do in this scary, broken world. But Kent Annan does not condemn or shame in this book. His honesty and vulnerability feel like an invitation to consider riskier obedience, enlarged faith. This book gave me a safe place to repeatedly ask myself what I am willing and not willing to do for God. I am wrestling. But I finished the book feeling hopeful and curious. What will following Jesus look like for me?