Everyone knows that just because something doesn't feel good doesn't mean it's bad. In fact, some of the healthiest experiences we have in life can be quite painful. Surgeries, for instance, can be excruciating, and yet they lead to better health, perhaps even pulling us back from death's door. In the physical world, what is best for us is not necessarily what feels best for us. The same is true in the spiritual world. What we need is not necessarily what we want. Healing might begin with hurting. This, among others, is a central point in Chase Replogle's latest book, A Sharp Compassion: 7 Hard Words to Heal Our Insecurities and Free Us from Offense.

As the title suggests, the sort of "hurt" that Replogle focuses on is "offense." And in the modern West, we are a brittle lot of easily offended creatures. What does that reveal about us? A Sharp Compassion uncovers the insecurities that lie beneath our offense. It does this by focusing on seven "sharp" words Jesus spoke to his followers: 

• Offense: "Get behind me, Satan!"
• Insecurity: "Why do you call me good?"
• Obsession: "You hypocrites!"
• Imitation: "Who are you to ask me?"
• Affirmation: "Woman, what is it to me?"
• Accusation: "Toss it to the dogs"
• Healing: "You will be offended by me"

Throughout the book, Replogle calls our attention back to the repeated New Testament truth: Jesus was "a stone of offense" (1 Pet. 2:8). The gospel itself is an offense (Isa. 8:14; Rom. 9:33). But it is through that offense, through that pain, that we come to find ourselves most receptive to Christ.

What I Loved

What I enjoyed most about the book was the author's honesty and self-inspection. This was particularly encouraging for a topic such as this. After all, if we can't be open about our own insecurities and how easily we're offended, is there any hope that we'll improve? One of the exercises I did as I read through the book was ask myself a simple question, and I encourage readers to do this as well: What are my deepest insecurities? The chapters in the book uncover different types of insecurities for biblical characters, but it's a more penetrating read when we bring our own insecurities to the surface and consider how the words of Christ might offend us. That offense, again, is meant to clear away our delusions of self-sufficiency and shatter our myriad idols. We need to be offended so that we can see the insecurities sleeping beneath the surface of our ordinary moments.

Favorite Quotes

Here are some of my favorite quotes.

• "We know what is wrong with the world and yet know very little about what is truly wrong with ourselves" (16).
• "What offends you can reveal important characteristics about you. Offense can be a form of revelation. It can shock you into seeing things you've overlooked about yourself" (22).
• "Only a Christ . . . who is permitted to risk offending can cut deeply enough to heal" (30).
• "Satan loves to overthrow the human heart while offering it all kinds of self-justifications" (45).
• "Before Christ is the way, he is an obstacle, the rope stretched taut between the trees. He is the salvation that knocks us off our feet and breaks our stride toward destruction. This world does not need more offense. God forbid I contribute to it. But this world does need Christ. You need Christ. And Christ acknowledged that he would cause many to be offended. Knocked down by Jesus, we will either harden our offense or be transformed by it" (48).
• "Idols are promises of security. We create idols by first imagining them. That is not ancient pagan religion; that is the way of every human heart. Insecurity leads to an obsession with some object of desire. It does so through the darkened imagination, which promises us salvation" (81).
• "Religion has shifted from the risk of offense to the affirmation of the self" (131).
• "The therapeutic and the offensive are incompatible. One seeks affirmation, the other reproof. The further the church slides into the therapeutic, the less it can speak Christ's words of offense, and the less it can save us from ourselves" (138).
• "The greatest trick of Satan's scheme of accusation is convincing us that what thwarts our progress is external to us. Satan constantly draws our attention away from ourselves and fixates our gaze on some rival. So, he trips us and stalls us from ever making real progress" (162).
• "It is always what we imitate that produces what we desire" (173).
• "At the cross, our hearts are either hardened or broken. The cross is the obstacle in our path for which each of us must inevitably reckon" (179).

What I Would Have Liked

I don't have too much to critique here. But perhaps it would have been helpful to plunge more deeply into the psychology of insecurity, earlier in the book. Most readers, I think, aren't aware of what's going on when they feel offended or insecure. I think Replogle draws this out as the book goes on, but it may have been helpful for some readers to have more direct instruction on that. For instance, we only feel insecure about things that we believe we have competency in. That's what ties in to offense. If someone on the street stopped me and said, "You know nothing about magnetic fields!" I wouldn't be offended. Why? Because I don't claim to know much about them. I have no "stake" in that field. However, I taught writing for over a decade and have produced two books on the topic (Theological English and Wielding Words). So, if the same person said, "You know nothing about writing!" I'd more likely be offended. That's because I think I'm competent to a degree in that area.

Now, if Jesus told me, "You know nothing about writing," that would sting, but I would be forced to make a decision: defend my ego or submit to Christ. In the latter case, I would say, "Okay, Lord. Teach me." The point is that our insecurity, and thus our offense, is bound up with our perception of ourselves and our experiences.

Should You Read It? 

YES. Replogle is a gifted writer with a passion for Christ and an awareness of our cultural moment. That's an asset to the church. I believe this book could serve as a catalyst for Christians to open up about their insecurities and to let the offense of Christ come in and start healing.

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