Death by Suburb

I've just started reading David Goetz's new book, Death by Suburb: How to keep the suburbs from killing your soul. I already identify with the author when he verbally rolls his eyes at young mothers in their tank-sized SUVs, criticizes acclaimed schools for their misplaced emphasis on winning instead of learning, and identifies the major problem of neighborhood churches as participation, not soulful communion with God.

When I first moved to Nashville, I was overwhelmed with the sense of "me-ness." Everywhere I went, people seemed remarkably interested in their status among others. People buy huge fancy trucks and SUVs not because they need them for the massive horsepower they are professed to have but because they exhibit status. Of course that sentiment is true in thousands of other ways in this city and all over the country. Nashville is only a sample of the self-centered nature of our society.

The purpose of Goetz's book is not to criticize but to offer solutions. He challenges the reader to take a step back from the toxic air of our surroundings and live deeply in the moment, which he calls, "in the thickness." He encourages us to resist the temptation to follow Jesus by sacrificing more, by committing ourselves more, or by escaping our surroundings. (While these are all valuable disciplines, they are also susceptible to comparison and evaluation by people around us. If we do them out of ego, then they are not truly offerings.) Instead, we should try to be more present in out day-to-say encounters with the world. It is in this thicker life in which we are "alive to God and alive to others."