When a famous author can explain exactly how he came to a real, living faith in Christ, we ought to listen.<\/p>\n
For nearly two decades, Malcolm Gladwell of the New Yorker magazine has explained why things are the way they are. Using insights from social science research, he described how \u201cideas and products and messages\u201d spread through a culture in his best-seller, \u201cThe Tipping Point.\u201d<\/p>\n
In \u201cOutliers,\u201d he explained why so many giants of the computer industry, such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Sun Microsystems founder Bill Joy, were all born within a few months of each other in the 1950s. He has even explained why NFL teams are terrible at drafting quarterbacks.<\/p>\n
But the research for his latest book, \u201cDavid and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants,\u201d led Gladwell to an explanation for something even more important: Why be a Christian?<\/p>\n
As he recently wrote in Relevant magazine, while writing \u201cDavid and Goliath,\u201d he went to Winnipeg to visit a woman named Wilma Derksen. Thirty years ago, the Derksens experienced every parent\u2019s worst nightmare: Their daughter, Candace, was abducted and murdered.<\/p>\n
Gladwell was amazed by something that Wilma said at the time: \u201cWe would like to know who the person or persons [who murdered Candace] are so we could share, hopefully, a love that seems to be missing in these people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
She continued, \u201cI can\u2019t say at this point I forgive this person,\u201d but, as Gladwell noticed, \u201cthe stress was on the phrase at this point.\u201d As he writes, \u201cI wanted to know where the Derksens found the strength to say those things … Where do two people find the power to forgive in a moment like that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer was their Christian faith. Similarly, in the final chapter of \u201cDavid and Goliath,\u201d he tells the story of Le Chambon, France. When France fell to the Nazis in World War II, the local Huguenot pastor and his flock determined that if the Germans told them to do anything \u201ccontrary to the Gospel,\u201d they would refuse.<\/p>\n
The refusals included everything from signing loyalty oaths and giving fascist salutes to hiding Jews. What\u2019s more, they told the Germans that they intended to resist.<\/p>\n
What happened in Winnipeg and Le Chambon were examples of what Gladwell, borrowing a phrase from filmmaker Pierre Sauvage, whose family was protected by the people of Le Chambon, calls \u201cweapons of the spirit.\u201d It\u2019s \u201cthe peculiar and inexplicable power that comes from within.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a power that Gladwell, who grew up in a Christian home, was familiar with but had gotten away from. As he put it, \u201cI have always believed in God. I have grasped the logic of Christian faith. What I have had a hard time seeing is God\u2019s power.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reading about the people of Le Chambon and sitting in Wilma Dirksen\u2019s garden, he saw that power. He realized that \u201cthe louder claims of material advantage\u201d and life\u2019s and the world\u2019s ideas about power had him looking in the wrong places. Seeing God\u2019s power in action led him to rediscover his Christian faith.<\/p>\n
As Gladwell\u2019s story reminds us, the logic of our faith is important but it\u2019s the way our faith enables us to be light in the midst of darkness that matters the most.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a point that, as Gladwell told me when I interviewed him for \u201cSocrates in the City,\u201d Christians often forget. Yet it\u2019s the stuff of which real \u201ctipping points,\u201d both personal and cultural, are made.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2014 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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