Though Jonathan Merritt has been a Christian for two decades, he came close to losing his faith in a spiritual drought that overwhelmed him with emptiness. An award-winning columnist for Religion News Service and a prolific commentator on faith and culture, Merritt believes there are many people struggling as he was—he calls it an “emptiness epidemic.” In his new book, Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined (Hachette Book Group/FaithWords, $20.00 hardcover, April 1, 2014, foreword by John Ortberg) he recounts unexpected encounters with Jesus that renew his faith, liberate him from the shame of a long-held secret, and transform his life.
Merritt offers his own experiences as a guide for those who seek to meet this surprising God. Among the ten encounters with Jesus he describes are:
- Silence: During a silent retreat at a Benedictine desert monastery, Merritt experiences silence as an opportunity to lean into God. One does not need to escape to the wilderness, however. As Merritt shows, what he experienced can be had in other places, by creating silent space in daily life.
- Honesty: Since childhood, Merritt kept the secret that he’d been sexually abused by an older boy and had struggled to understand his own sexuality in adolescence and adulthood. Then, in 2012, a gay blogger with whom Jonathan had a brief physical encounter years earlier, exposed the incident online. In response, Merritt opted for honesty, sharing part of his story through an interview on a widely read blog. The experience, though painful, proved liberating, and Merritt met God in the messiness. In Jesus is Better, Jonathan shares the full details of this story, including his struggle with suicidal thoughts, for the first time.
- The Impossible: Visiting Haiti to work with an aid group after the hurricane, Merritt witnesses terrible devastation and is held at gunpoint by bandits, but also finds pockets of hope and even joy. He learns to nurture his spiritual imagination, which means “always envisioning new realities that align with the world God desires.”
- Sacrilege: One of the most surprising places in which Merritt finds Jesus is in Sister Louisa’s Ping Pong Emporium in Atlanta, an irreverent club that openly mocks religion. Here, Merritt finds a commentary on American Christianity: “what we call religion is often a malformation of true faith. Rather than a vibrant adventure of knowing God, it is an oppressive way of trying to be good or look good or feel good.”
In these and other anecdotes, Merritt introduces a Jesus who is better than imagined in many expressions of contemporary American Christianity. In places of poverty and devastation, in tragedy, in the midst of having a painful secret exposed to the world, even in the midst of a sacrilegious spoof of religion, Merritt found a Jesus who offers a radical invitation to live free. After a lifetime of practicing a religion quick to condemn and slow to offer grace, Merritt found liberation “from the ball and chain of religion and release from a cold life of moralistic perfectionism.”
Jonathan Merritt (www.jonathanmerritt.com) is an award-winning faith and culture writer who has published more than 1,000 articles in outlets such as The Atlantic, USAToday, Washington Post, National Journal, and CNN.com. He is a senior columnist for Religion News Service, America’s largest provider of news and commentary focused on religion and spirituality. His previous books include A Faith of Our Own: Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars and Green Like God. Merritt was recently named one of Merritt was recently named one of the 30 young voices reshaping Christian leadership by Outreach magazine.
