You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World by O. Alan Noble.

This is one of those books I wish I could get everyone to read, especially my adult children. But it has “God” in the subtitle (and in the content), so it’s not likely that all of them will read it. At any rate, You Are Not Your Own has enriched and informed my thoughts and ideas, and I’m sure it will be among the best of all of the books I read this year–or ever.

In the first half of the book, Mr. Noble presents the problem: we live in a world that is inhuman, a world that is not set up for human flourishing. He uses the analogy of a lion caged in a “natural habitat” at the zoo. “Zoochosis is the common term for that thing that lions do at the zoo when they obsessively pace back and forth in their cages.” Noble argues that we experience our own form of zoochosis as we vainly attempt to adapt ourselves to the world that we have made for ourselves in our ambition to be the little gods of our own lives. He gives examples of the inhuman conditions in which we find ourselves: the way we understand sex and love; the way we treat parents, children, and work; the ways we live together; the ways we buy, sell, and consume. Meaninglessness plagues us, so we try to create our own meaning. We’re not sure who we are or where we belong, so we try to create our own identities and our own little tribal groups.

This problem presentation takes up four chapters in a seven chapter book, but the last three chapters don’t exactly give a neat solution. Jesus said, “In this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” Or as Mr. Noble quotes from the Heidelberg Catechism, “What is your only comfort in life and death? That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.” This affirmation is not a solution. It doesn’t magically clear away all of the inhuman conditions (tribulations) of this world, but it does save me from having to find or be my own comfort, from having to make up my own identity out of bits and scraps of humane (Or sometimes inhumane) ideas and systems that I happen upon here and there. And the catechism, based on Scripture, goes on to promise me a solution that is now and will come: “Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.”

If I’ve whetted your appetite, if you have questions about your own identity and about how we can know our identity in Christ, if you just want to read a well thought out and argued book, Christian or not, read You Are Not Your Own. And find comfort.