I’ve purchased and read several books from Relevant Books over the last few years. A couple of months ago I added the book God’s Gravity : The Upside-Down Life of Selfless Faith to my list to look into further, and it’s scheduled to be released this coming week.

I came across this within the last couple of weeks and have been meaning to post it, as I was checking out some more info on the book. It’s the blog of the author, Craig Borlase, and an experiment he did just a couple of weeks ago. He decided to attempt to live for one week on $1 per day - seven days on seven dollars. Why is he doing it? He says, “because that’s the way that life is for more than one in five people around the world.” He posted on his blog each day, usually more than once, about his experience and has since added some related posts.

He didn’t live strictly on $1 a day, keeping a couple of appointments where free food was available, and he states plainly that he’s aware he’s not really living like those who live on $1 per day - he still lived in his home, had a comfortable bed, running water, etc. But it’s still a very interesting read.

You can begin reading his blog entries here on June 6th, which was the day he started.

Here is the synopsis of his upcoming book:

Everyone’s in this thing for themselves. The entertainment world. The business world. The political world. And, sadly, even the religious world. More and more, the Church is buying into a self-absorbed faith, pursuing health, wealth and spiritual high-fives at the expense of the Gospel we’re supposed to be pursuing. God’s Gravity, by Craig Borlase, deconstructs the myth of success that infects today’s Christians. Drawing from the story of Job - a guy who does everything right and still sees his life fall to pieces - Borlase challenges a new generation of Christians to disavow the so-called “prosperity gospel,” rediscover the importance of sacrifice and embrace the vital connection between social justice and a life of authentic religion. In a culture where even Christians are adopting values contradictory to the ethics of Jesus, God’s Gravity dares us to turn our lives upside down and live them the right way up.

You can read the first chapter here (pdf). Here is a quote:

We resist the pull of responsibility. We shrug it off like so many awkward garments, twisting like preteenagers forced into formal clothes for a family wedding. Is someone else’s misfortune our concern? Is it up to us to work on their behalf, regardless of whether we have been part of the initial problem?

It is tempting to write that we live in a culture that validates our rejection of responsibility. It’s tempting because it is partly true. We live under the banner of freedom and independence, of being empowered to make personal choices, of taking control of our own destiny. These are good words, too, seductive words - the sort that can read like a brochure for a particularly impressive product. Of course we want to sign up for this type of life. Who wouldn’t relish the opportunity to craft a decent future for himself?

The trouble is that in our hands, these concepts of empowerment and freedom and independence become stale, pale reflections of what they should really be. We make them into our own personal Christmas elves, there to serve our own needs and nobody else’s. Everything becomes about us. We’re supposed to be able to have the kids and keep the career, to have the career and keep the marriage, to have the marriage and keep the freedom, to have the freedom and keep the kids. It’s all about us, barely ever about anyone else.

I hope to read the entire book soon, so I’ll try to post more about it.