This book I've been reading has been rocking my socks off. I bought it several years ago--it is one of many books which I've packed and unpacked each time I've moved and thought, "I wish I had time to read that right now." I've been reading a chapter a day for the last week or so. And every day I get that "Man, I wish everyone could read this book!" feeling. It's a Christian book, a creative telling of the Gospel, that I would feel totally comfortable recommending to my non-Christian peers.
Searching for God Knows What (there are super cheap used copies on Amazon, if I'm convincing you it might be worth reading).
For those of us Christians who talk a lot about ideas and trends and like to analyze often, there has been lots of talk about postmodernity, narrative, our need for relationship, what the Gospel is, etc. Some people enjoy reading thick books by theologians to understand such things. Others want things that are easier to read in order to make sense out of life. And the theologians get scared because those people read things like Everyday a Friday (Joel Osteen) or Love Wins by Rob Bell... not that it's bad to read those books... it's just scary when a compelling author uses stories with emotional appeal to win people over to "truth" without a biblical foundation.
Anyway, Donald Miller has a great balance. He is authentic--he unashamedly explores doubts that many others are too embarrassed to express. He questions popular approaches to Christianity without being a jerk. He uses stories from everyday life AND Scripture. His perspective is fresh, but not extreme... which is SO rare.
Somehow he makes me aware of my faulty thinking in a way that actually brings conviction--I don't feel defensive, and I don't just shrug it off because so many other people have the same faulty thinking. He doesn't just point fingers or criticize people, but tells stories of how hearing things he disagreed with made him dig deeper and rethink things, and then tells us what he concluded. It's like the readers are exploring questions and possibilities right along with him.
Here's one example of a big truth statement he concludes:
"The thing that defines human personalities is that they are constantly comparing themselves to one another." He uses examples of sports, TV shows (Survivor? The Bachelor?), school bullies, materialism, etc. And the whole time, I'm thinking "Man, he's RIGHT!"
Before this, he talks about how natural it is for people to expect others to tell them who they are. "I figure I was attaching myself to a certain identity because it made me feel smart or, more honestly, it made other people tell me I was smart. This was how I earned my sense of importance. Now, as I was saying earlier, by doing things to get other people to value me, a couple of ideas became obvious, the first being that I was a human wired so other people told me who I was... And so the second idea became obvious: I was very concerned with getting other people to say I was good or valuable or important because the thing that was supposed to make me feel this way was gone." (He had previously told a story of telling God He didn't exist).
This all fits with my previous post about realizing this base human need to feel valued. Donald Miller is helping me see how this plays into my relationship with God. What does it REALLY mean to have a relationship with God? It's great to focus on that for once instead of the systematic details of conversion, justification, redemption, etc.--this almost scientific attempt to explain something which isn't really scientific.
Searching for God Knows What (there are super cheap used copies on Amazon, if I'm convincing you it might be worth reading).
For those of us Christians who talk a lot about ideas and trends and like to analyze often, there has been lots of talk about postmodernity, narrative, our need for relationship, what the Gospel is, etc. Some people enjoy reading thick books by theologians to understand such things. Others want things that are easier to read in order to make sense out of life. And the theologians get scared because those people read things like Everyday a Friday (Joel Osteen) or Love Wins by Rob Bell... not that it's bad to read those books... it's just scary when a compelling author uses stories with emotional appeal to win people over to "truth" without a biblical foundation.
Anyway, Donald Miller has a great balance. He is authentic--he unashamedly explores doubts that many others are too embarrassed to express. He questions popular approaches to Christianity without being a jerk. He uses stories from everyday life AND Scripture. His perspective is fresh, but not extreme... which is SO rare.
Somehow he makes me aware of my faulty thinking in a way that actually brings conviction--I don't feel defensive, and I don't just shrug it off because so many other people have the same faulty thinking. He doesn't just point fingers or criticize people, but tells stories of how hearing things he disagreed with made him dig deeper and rethink things, and then tells us what he concluded. It's like the readers are exploring questions and possibilities right along with him.
Here's one example of a big truth statement he concludes:
"The thing that defines human personalities is that they are constantly comparing themselves to one another." He uses examples of sports, TV shows (Survivor? The Bachelor?), school bullies, materialism, etc. And the whole time, I'm thinking "Man, he's RIGHT!"
Before this, he talks about how natural it is for people to expect others to tell them who they are. "I figure I was attaching myself to a certain identity because it made me feel smart or, more honestly, it made other people tell me I was smart. This was how I earned my sense of importance. Now, as I was saying earlier, by doing things to get other people to value me, a couple of ideas became obvious, the first being that I was a human wired so other people told me who I was... And so the second idea became obvious: I was very concerned with getting other people to say I was good or valuable or important because the thing that was supposed to make me feel this way was gone." (He had previously told a story of telling God He didn't exist).
This all fits with my previous post about realizing this base human need to feel valued. Donald Miller is helping me see how this plays into my relationship with God. What does it REALLY mean to have a relationship with God? It's great to focus on that for once instead of the systematic details of conversion, justification, redemption, etc.--this almost scientific attempt to explain something which isn't really scientific.
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