undefended

discovering God when your guard is down

DANIEL BUSH

Undefended: Discovering God When Your Guard Is Down

Copyright 2017 Daniel Bush

Kirkdale Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225

KirkdalePress.com

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Scripture quotations marked (nasb) are taken from the New American Standard Bible ®, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Print ISBN 9781577997467

Digital ISBN 9781577997474

Kirkdale Editorial: Allisyn Ma, Lynnea Smoyer, Abigail Stocker, Danielle Thevenaz

Cover Design: Brittany Schrock

Back Cover Design: Liz Donovan

To my mother,

Marlene Patricia Strang

—a caring & tireless giver

contents

foreword by Gerrit Dawson

prologue: let them see you

1: crossing all points

2: leaving eden

3: taming the mississippi

4: shadow boxing

5: drowning the victim

6: peering beyond the depths

7: surrendering at appomattox

8: bedazzling embrace

9: dancing in the desert

10: digging for potatoes

11: living at tether’s end

epilogue: simply undefended

afterword by Michael Card

acknowledgments

scripture index

foreword

Daniel Bush has stories for us. Lots of stories. Some from his own life, some from the people he encounters and others from the great authors he reads. They are all stories which resonate authentically with the way our own lives are unfolding. Daniel makes us aware of how God is up to something significant precisely in the life-narratives where he seems to have gone quiet. Reading the wisdom of the stories in Undefended led me to rethink the meaning in the stories running through my daily life. He made me want to open up to what God has been saying all along.

For instance: My wife and I had a bit of a “discussion.” A little while later, we took the dogs for a walk. For the first few minutes we just chatted about anything and nothing. Then she brought up what was between us. “You know, I don’t really think it was fair when you said.…” Before she finished, I had six counterarguments at the ready. My verbal dukes yearned to be put up in fighting mode. I had been silently planning my defense. This spat could escalate to war. Of course I wouldn’t win, but I could make the cost of engagement very pricey.

But I also had been reading some early chapters of the book you hold in your hands. In a grace-filled ...