Friesen releases new book exploring questions about faith and spirituality
When asked about the story behind his latest book, Wandering the Wilderness: A Guide for Weary Wanderers and Searching Skeptics, Ray Friesen, local mediator, storyteller, and retired pastor, leaned back with a relaxed eagerness. This was a story he had told before but he welcomed the opportunity to tell it again. “I doubt I will ever forget,” Friesen began, “the morning of March 30, 2015 when my wife and I got into our car for a trip to the hospital. ‘Our lives may change this morning,’ I said to Sylvia.” Little did they realize how big that change would be.
By noon that fateful day he had been diagnosed with colon cancer. In less than a month he had surgery and on June 10 began chemotherapy. “June 10,” Friesen says, “marked the beginning of a zig zag journey downward. It reached its lowest point toward the end of November, a month after his regimen had been cut short by two treatments. He lay in a fetal position on an ER bed, crying, and convinced he would never get well again. “Obviously I was wrong,” Friesen says with a grin. “Not only am I in robust health, after losing 50 pounds, I could again, based on my figure, do a great stand-in for Santa Claus.”
That journey in 2015 provides the context for his book. Within the countryside created by that story and other life experiences, Friesen draws from two sources of wisdom to suggest a way in the wilderness where often there are no signposts and points to a faith without easy answers. His one source is ancient, the other 21st century.
“I grew up in a Mennonite and fundamentalist Evangelical tradition,” Friesen confesses. “As I grew into young adulthood I knew I would have to rework my Christian faith and spirituality if it was to have any relevance for me.” For him that reworking began soon after high school and continued through Bible College and university. “I was taught the Bible is God’s Word,” he says. “I continue to believe God speaks to me through those Ancient Writings, but only if I open myself up to be guided by my imagination and to the possibility of surprises, bit time surprises.” He says he continues to live with a passion to read those Ancient Writings in ways relevant in 2020 and beyond.
Friesen was introduced to the writings of Dr. Brené Brown several years ago. It was her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, that caught his attention in particular. From her interviews of 1000+ people in the US, Brown drew ten conclusions as to what people need to experience Wholehearted living. Is it possible, Friesen asked himself, that what the Ancients had to say about Abundant life could be what 21st century folk say about Wholehearted living?
With that question in mind, Friesen preached a series of sermons in 2016 guided by Brown’s book and drawing from the Ancient Writings. Realizing the limits of a sermon series, he began to envision a book. Wandering the Wilderness is the result.
When asked who the book is for. Keeping track on the fingers of his hand, he answered: “One, for those who are fatigued in life and wondering if Christian faith and spirituality has something to offer them and refresh them. Two, those who grew up in a Christian home and/or church but have come to wonder, as I often have, whether Christian faith and spirituality has any relevance in the 21st century. They are tempted to jettison it all and yet think they might be throwing away too much if they do so. And three, anyone curious about what kind of coincidence there might be between the conclusions of 21st century sociological research and Ancient Writings that have stood the test of time.”