Dangerous Love by
Ray Norman is a risky, beautifully written autobiography about a missionary and
his family’s mission in a place called Mauritania, located in an Islamic
Republic. Ray was raised in the familiarity of missionary work. His parents
were medical missionaries in various places over the world. It felt only
natural to him to go into missionary work himself. He went to college for
studies in agriculture and water resources engineering, so that he could assist
people he encounters during his missionary work with their water supply
systems. Ray met a woman, Helene, in the Niger Republic while he was on one of
his mission trips. Helene was on a short term missionary trip herself. She
later became his wife. They both had the same passion for helping others and
telling others about God while traveling abroad to do it. Together, they joined
the World Vision missionary company and began their calling working for God as
a family. Later on, they had a son, Nathaniel, and a daughter, Hannah. This
book goes into the journey of not only Ray, who is telling the story, but his
family as well.
This book gently touched every edge of my heart when it came to viewing the
extent of Ray and his family’s work for the Lord. Not only did he write it in a
way to help me see what had happened in Mauritania, but he wrote it in a way
that helped me FEEL what had happened. I laughed and I cried. I felt angry,
then immediate shame, because as a Christian, I don’t know if I would’ve been
able to handle the situation that Ray and his family was put in like they did.
The climax of the story definitely had me on the edge of my seat! I was
literally reading it while I was cooking my family supper and couldn’t put the
book down. The climax of the story tells about an event that happened after the
radical Islamic attack on America’s soil on 9/11. Ray and his family were in
Mauritania, an Islamic Republic. They had just gone through a period of strong
tension between them, as Americans, and the people of Mauritania. Things were
just starting to lighten up. Ray and his daughter, Hannah, were going to spend
an afternoon at a nearby beach when their world was shattered to pieces.
Even after the climax
of the story began to calm down, I was left wanting to know what happened next
and how things were resolved. I was not disappointed. Ray didn’t leave out any
detail and he didn’t ramble about things; he made perfect sense. He wrote how
things were resolved and it made me like this book even more. He wrote about
each step of how he and his family picked up the pieces and put them back
together again. He wrote about how, even though they had been through something
so tragic, they still felt led to do God’s will.
The ending of this
book is a breath of fresh air. The best part of this story is that it really
happened. It renewed my hope in the Christians that I have as brothers and
sisters through Christ. Ray updates his story ten years after the beginning of
the story and doesn’t disappoint with the details, again. Even though they had
made peace of the tragic thing that took place, they still have some healing to
do. Because they are human and that’s what makes this book so relatable, to me.
“My family’s story is just a small subset of a greater and far more amazing
story that has yet to reach its conclusion. The story of God’s love- his
reconciliation and redemption in the world and his wondrous, caring, and
patient ways- is still unfolding. Our stories never really end. They keep
going, just as the hand of a loving God never stops moving.” Ray Norman Dangerous Love.
With much humility Ray touches on how much we should love and forgive other
people Lately, we’ve seen so many negative things about Muslims and how they’re
affecting our world. What we have failed to realize is that we’re affecting
their world as well. The more that we become closed off and ignorant to them,
the more we are showing them that we hate them. That’s right, I said hate. As
Christians, we are supposed to “love our neighbors” (Mark 12:31). If we don’t
make ourselves available and forgive the ones that have hurt us, then how are
we supposed to TRULY love like God intends for us to? If we don’t love them,
then that only leaves hate, right? Right. Ray Norman’s story isn’t a safe
story, it’s definitely dangerous. God’s love is dangerous and that’s why the
title of this book is, “Dangerous Love”.
I would recommend
this book to anyone and everyone. Especially those that are planning on
fulfilling God’s commission for their life. God has a plan for each and every
one of us. As Christians, we are supposed to fulfill our commission and listen
to God’s plan for us.
“As Christians our convictions are
understandably rooted in our understanding of Scripture. But convictions alone
can serve little purpose when they do not inform the way we live our lives." -Ray Norman Dangerous Love.
