Boyd Morris takes you on an inspiring exploration of five elements of HEROIC epic living as they appear in superhero stories, your life story and the ageless disciplines of heroic spirituality, showing you how to: - DISCOVER YOUR DESTINY in this good but broken world. - DEEPEN YOUR FRIENDSHIPS by accepting destiny's call and uniting with others to restore the world. - ELEVATE YOUR KNOWLEDGE by choosing to take dangerous paths of obedience into the heart of darkness. - ENHANCE YOUR COURAGE by giving your all to defeat evil and in the process experience transformation. - ACHIEVE YOUR POTENTIAL as an agent of transformation on behalf of others. There is more to epic living than you may have yet dared to imagine. While epic living comes with being human, HEROIC epic living is the quest to be FULLY human. Boyd says there is a "THIRD choice." When we come face-to-face with evil systems--"when institutions fail, injustice abounds, families breakdown...the environment suffers, and civilizations collapse--"we have three choices. We can FLEE from the system, or JOIN with the system, or REPLACE the system with a better one. While all three choices are epic, only the third is heroic. "This book is about the epic struggle we all go through to make the third choice," Boyd says. "Epic living is the head on collision between unheroic and heroic choices. Unheroic choices reduce us to lesser, mortal versions of ourselves. But when we make heroic choices, "the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality" (1 Cor. 15:54). While unheroic choices are human, heroic choices are fully human--immortal." While "our choices enact how we feel, not just what we think...how we feel is shaped by our imagination." Thus Boyd says he has not written a "fact-filled THINKING book to INFORM" but "a FEELING book with an imaginative fire to TRANSFORM. Yet, imagination is more than thinking and even deeper than feeling." At the heart of this book is the view that, "Imagination is a DIVINE POWER that enables us to do more than just think things; it empowers us to ENACT what we imagine, to bring into being and make visible what otherwise would remain invisible. While it is wondrously true that God created Mankind in His IMAGE, making the invisible God visible, there is an even greater mystery at work here. God also created us in His LIKENESS, infusing us with the divine power of imagination. God not only made us in His image, but also gave us the power to imagine in His likeness. With this power, we can enact what we envision, even entire WORLD SYSTEMS." For those who desire to pursue the call to HEROIC epic living further, Boyd offers an invitation to connect with "a cadre of unlikely heroes" at "Kingdom Superheroes (kingdomsuperheroes.com)," which he says is "a global community of chivalric adventurers engaged in the heroic epic lifestyle of advancing the Kingdom of Christ." "Kingdom Superheroes," says Boyd, are "people of the 'third choice'" who believe "collapsing civilizations are the problem for which colonies of heaven [future-ancient ways of doing community together in the twenty-first century] are the solution." Speaking for this "cadre of unlikely heroes," Boyd says, "In the darkness we say, 'Let there be light.' We dare to imagine all things in our good yet broken world restored. We assemble. We cultivate wisdom in the secret places of the world where heroes gather, not to be noticed, but to map dangerous paths of obedience into the heart of darkness, knowing the cost. We fear no evil, not even in the Valley of the Shadow of Death because in death we exhaust evil, putting death to death. Resurrection power is not a concept to us, but a reality we have tasted. It tastes like chivalric love triumphant."
About the Author: Boyd's passionate pursuit of an epic life led to his ordination as a Presbyter (Priest) of the Church on December 29, 2004. He is a founder of Basileia, a worldwide family of unlikely heroes who imagine, cultivate and launch kingdomcultural communities and initiatives. Boyd serves as the Abbot of the Basileia Abbey of St. John in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is also the Presiding Abbot of the Basileia Alliance. Boyd and his wife, Sheila, happily reside in Colorado Springs. In 2014, Sheila and Boyd co-founded CenterPoint. In 2014, he and fellow Presbyter John Hunt launched Kingdom Superheroes, a global cadre of chivalric adventurers engaged in the epic lifestyle of heroically advancing the Kingdom of Christ. Boyd's passion for Christ and vision for the Church is expressed by his favorite image, the Icon of Resurrection, which shows the gates of Hades not prevailing as Christ and His Church destroy evil and restore all things ruined by evil. Boyd looks forward to hearing from you at boydwmorris@me.com. In the Preface, Boyd says about himself, "I've always been captivated by big ideas, adventurous and heroic people, instruments of exploration (like rockets), soaring music, the mystical call to pursue a cause rather than just a career, the grandeur of ancient civilizations, and the possibilities of the future. Watching the first humans walk on the moon at age six inspired me to roll up large sheets of paper into a fleet of rocket ships. I uniquely colored and designed each ship to explore a different planet. These spaceships were my first religious icons. They transported me from earth to heaven and back again on many an adventure. At age six I also began to venerate a pantheon of heroes, the first being Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise... To my pantheon of heroes, I added Beethoven...[A]s a kid...I would fall asleep listening to Beethoven's Symphony No. 6. I discovered that great symphonies had as much power to transport me to worlds unknown as did starships. In Beethoven's music, I felt the veil between heaven and earth grow thin. Ever since I've been addicted to this feeling." Anymore, I can hardly tell the difference between my feel for Jesus and His Church and the intoxication of imagining new worlds to explore, the power of starships and the beauty of symphonies. While these things are, of course, all distinct, as any scribe can tell you, I feel their similitudes. It is this feeling that compelled me to write this book.