Donald Miller's Blog, page 122

My Review of Love Wins

I confess I read this book because of all the hoopla on the internet. John Piper hates it, Mark Driscoll wants to say how much he hates it but is tired of launching his enemies onto the New York Times Bestsellers list so talks about it without talking about it. Man, I'm a sucker for controversy so I placed my order. Surprisingly, the book has been out of print for a while and I could only get this used, battered copy, and it cost me more than the sale price from twenty years ago. Two words: WORTH IT!

Love Wins is a romance novel by Barbara Cartland (who knew John Piper reads this stuff. Even if he hates it, we are SO BESTIES NOW!)

Love Wins: Caught in a fierce love triangle, Joan June is torn between her dentist and her chiropractor. The dentist has more money, obviously, but is less open to the spiritual ideas and natural practices of the chiropractor. One gives her security and the other pops her back for free and introduces her to the ancient practice of smelling plants and rubbing oils abd bird poo on your face. And whale music. What ever shall she do?

Thinking she's made her choice, and on her way to tell the Chiropractor he's the one, June doubles over on the street with a severe tooth ache? Is it a sign? You'll have to read the book to find out that, in fact, she chooses the dentist. And the chiropractor turns out to be two-timing her anyway. Occasionally she looks back on a life that could have been, but each time she thanks the God in heaven for the good man she's found, even if in moment so temptation she spreads a little dried bird poo on her lips.

Man this book was good. John Piper has no idea what he's talking about. Read it. Love it. Feel it. Live it. Thank you Barbara Cartland.

My Review of Love Wins is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Five Reasons to Register for Storyline

Today is the last day to get the pre-registration price for the Storyline Conference.

If you're needing a bit of clarity in your life, or wanting to jump-start the story you are living, come visit Portland in June with hundreds of other people who will be mapping out their personal storyline at our two-day conference.

How long has it been since you've performed a life evaluation? Here are five reasons to attend Storyline:

 

1. Because you can walk out of the Storyline conference better understanding what you want to do with the rest of your life.

2. Because you'll come to understand why some roles in life don't work for you and others seem to work great. You'll understand the "kind of character" you play in life's story and be able to shape your story around that role.

3. You'll have a broad map showing you where you currently are in your story and be able to list the priorities you can focus on now so the story is as impacting as you hope it can be.

4. You'll meet people from all over the country who are interested in the kind of life you are interested in and are hoping to tell the world a better story with their lives.

5. You'll get to spend a few days in Portland, one of the best cities in the world. Come on out and join us!

 

 

 

Five Reasons to Register for Storyline is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

The Thing About Choices

So I've been working on the new book for a long time now. I've got pages and pages of outlines and notes but it's time to write it. So I sent three versions of the first chapter to my publisher and had a conference call to talk through the pros and cons of each "voice." We all agreed that one was better than the other two so that's good news. Sometimes your mind can get a little Jekyl and Hydeish and you feel like you're dealing with multiple personalities. It's all about choices. Because we're a ridiculous dualistic society (don't study the roots of dualism because it will mess up your theology for a year or more) and we start thinking there's a right choice and a wrong choice, or because we didn't get something we wanted there's "nothing" else out there. It's ridiculous.

Basically, there are just paths. Or maybe there's just woods, and you have to cut your way through the woods.

One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies is from Wonderboys, when Katie Holmes character reminds Professor Tripp that "writers have to make decisions." What she meant was a book only starts taking shape when a writer decides to go somewhere and then takes action in that direction.

Kinda like life, I think. Just decide and move. Just write the thing. Just move.

 

The Thing About Choices is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Ten Characteristics of a Disciple

I remember being in a Bible study once when the teacher pulled out a book about discipleship and read ten or so characteristics of a disciple. They were things like being holy and devoted and knowledgeable and all that. They sounded nothing like the characteristics of the disciples in the Bible. The author was well meaning, of course, but it's no doubt tempting to hang a carrot in front of people telling them they have to "become" in order to be used by God rather than admitting they actually "become" while they are in the process of being used by God. It's an important paradigm shift for all of us because otherwise we'd be too intimidated to take the first step.

Here are some actual characteristics of the disciples I think we can safely trust. If you resonate with any of these, you're in a good spot and likely following Jesus:

1. You think Jesus wants to take over the government so you cut off a soldiers ear in order to get the fighting started. (The neo cons are definitely disciples!)

2. You keep pestering Jesus about who he will give more power to in heaven.

3. You have no theological training but own a small fishing business which somehow makes you qualified because you "get it."

4. The Holy Spirit crashes into one of your mini sermons so everybody can speak different languages and outsiders think you're drunk.

5. People ask you if you know Jesus and you freak out and say no and run away.

6. You hear they killed Jesus on a cross and you figure the whole thing was a wash and you got duped.

7. You choose other disciples by playing rock, paper scissors.

8. You teach bad theology and have to have somebody else come over and correct you.

So there you go. My guess is there's a place in there for you. So if you're confused about theology or power hungry or just an average idiot, take the first step. You'll get sorted out along the way. The disciples "became" some pretty great guys in the end.

Ten Characteristics of a Disciple is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

What Kind of Person Does God Use?

Growing up in church, I learned there were standards for being used by God. Most of the standards involved character. We learned, both directly and indirectly, the standards involved being holy or righteous, skilled, willing, among a few others. These are the three that stick out most, though.

Theologically speaking, none of us are holy, but I think what they meant was you went to church a lot and didn't use tobacco or cuss. As for being skilled, I think it mostly meant you were a good communicator. Being used by God, at the time, meant mostly doing church work. And then, of course, you had to be willing. If you were willing, it was said, God would use you.

As for what God was doing in the world through the church, I deduced two main priorities: 1. Grow the church and 2. Make God look good. The church was doing other things, but this seemed to be the primary focus.

I have since learned the objectives of the church are different than the objectives of God. And I've also learned the people God can use are different than the people the church can use. If you glance at scripture for just a second, you'd get the sense that God uses perverts and criminals. If you glance at the church (at least the modern, megachurch) you get the sense God uses preachers that were once in the band Rascall Flats but laid it all down to rock a Bible.

God's Primary Objective in the World: To save many lives. I get this, of course, from nearly every major character in scripture from Joseph to Moses to Jonah to the Law itself to Christ and the Apostles and beyond. If God is doing anything in the world, he's attempting to rescue people while still giving them the freedom to choose him or deny him.

Who God Uses: God uses anybody he wants. The only holy person God uses in scripture is Jesus, so he certainly uses people who are unholy. He also uses people who have little skill or talent. Moses comes to mind, who was a terrible leader at first. He could hardly speak and was unwilling to talk in front of Pharaoh because he was convinced God had chosen the wrong man. And as for being willing, Jonah was completely unwilling but God used him anyway. So you don't have to be holy, skilled or willing to be used by God. Any teaching otherwise goes against scripture. Call me a fundamentalist.

It goes without saying he used all these people to save many lives.Can you think of a major character in scripture who wasn't involved in a story about saving lives?

This is no argument against the church. The church absolutely needs to hold a different standard than God. God doesn't have to vet his leaders like the church does. Can you imagine interviewing Moses for the job of lead pastor, listening to him stammer out a bunch of excuses in response to the inquiry about that pesky murder in his past, and then the elders making a gut decision to give him the job anyway? So I don't have a problem with the church having a higher standard than God. But if we lead people to believe they cant be used by God to save lives even though they aren't a fit for professional ministry, we are making a huge mistake, and it would be an interesting debate as to whether we are being guided by the Bible in our thinking. God can use anybody he wants. Anybody, anytime. He displays this over and over in the scriptures.

If you're wondering whether God will use you, there's no telling. Preachers say God wants to use us and list qualifications all the time but very little of that is Biblical. We like to turn narrative passages into laws or principals about God, but that's exactly what Satan does with the scriptures. The truth is, God is a being with a mind of his own and he can do what he wants. We can't control him, we can only influence him by telling him what we want and by making our requests known. The best analogy is to think of God as a father. A good father, that is. He works kinda like a person, and not kinda like a computer that you enter code in so it will spit out a response that correlates with your code.

I don't know if God will use you. I can't think of a reason he wouldn't, but I'm not God and neither is your pastor so there's no telling. I only know God is trying to save many lives and that he uses anybody he wants.

If you want to be used by God, the best thing you can do is tell him. So if you've felt unqualified to be used by God, you aren't. You may be unqualified to be used by the church, but you aren't unqualified to be used by God, because he can use anybody. He even used a donkey. And a serpent that turned into a rod. And a rock that spit water. He can use anybody he wants. Maybe he wants to use you.

 

What Kind of Person Does God Use? is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Sunday Morning Music, Raphael Saadiq

Straight out of the fifties of the future (fashion prediction, in 40 years all the kids will be looking at photos of the 1950′s and recreating them in their outfits.) Maybe they'll be listening to Raphael Saadiq, too. This morning, enjoy music from the future and the past:

Sunday Morning Music, Raphael Saadiq is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

A Feeling of Destiny?

I'm doing a little research for a chapter and I'm wondering if anybody knows of famous leaders, living or passed, who have felt on their lives a sense of destiny.

This sense of destiny could have come from an early age, but I do need actual references in their journals, books they've written or books written about them. I need statements from these leaders saying they feel called to something that will impact lives and change the course of history.

Anybody read a book recently in which a known leader shared such a feeling? Again, a journal entry, a word to a parent. It's tough, because most leaders feel this sense of destiny but few talk about it, especially in their own work for fear of being misunderstood. Ultimately this feeling would transition into a call to service.

I'd appreciate it if you'd name that resource in the comments below.

Grateful,

 

Don

A Feeling of Destiny? is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Jesus Comforts Our Fear of Death

If you're afraid to die, you're not alone. And by not alone I don't mean you're not the only one who is afraid, I mean you're not the only one who has to die. We are all sliding off this assembly line relatively soon. And nothing we've built is going with us.

This can either be a terrifying thought or a comforting thought. If you've accumulated a lot of power and stuff, death may be a bit of a let down. I suppose you could be buried with your stuff but lets face it, that's creepy. And it's hard to enjoy your stuff when your skeleton hands can't get a firm grip on anything.

Death can be comforting, though, when you realize the stuff you are worried about simply won't matter after you die. If you've lost your job, it's comforting to know you were going to lose it anyway, when you die. How's that for a bright side?

In John chapter eleven, Jesus has a peculiar view of death. His friend Lazarus has died and Lazarus' sisters send word to Jesus. Jesus hears the news and says "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." Jesus is most likely talking about the fact He is going to raise Lazarus from the dead and display that He and God the Father are indeed one so that others will trust Him. Regardless, death isn't a concept of which Jesus has any fear.

I'm asked often why God would let terrible things happen in this world, mostly things that involve unfair and unjust death. Its a good question, and one of the things I'm reminded of when I'm faced with it myself is that God knows what happens on the other side of life and we don't. Sure we have vague ideas, but most scholars assume they know much more than the Bible lets on. Scholars do this about many things because it gives them job security (and perhaps the illusion of control).

But God doesn't tell us everything about the afterlife. If death is a door through which we walk, God is on the other side of the door, and apparently God isn't all that worried about what's happening in the other room. From our perspective, what seems atrocious and terrifying is perfectly fine to Him. Perhaps the terror is all ours for not trusting Him. He can't be responsible for unreasonable fears created in our imaginations. Still, Jesus has compassion. Jesus sees his friends weeping over the death of their brother and friend and is troubled, the Bible says. And he even weeps with them. Some say Jesus weeps because He is about to bring Lazarus back from paradise, but nothing in the text confirms this. I think He was weeping because these were his friends and they were devastated.

Jesus gives a great deal of comfort to Martha saying "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" and Martha said to him "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world."

Jesus is asking Martha, and all the rest of us, to trust Him with our lives and even our deaths. But that's a tough thing, isn't it? To trust Jesus with our lives and our deaths, we have to give up all control. Then Jesus shows them, and those of us who believe, the power He has over death. He goes to the tomb and has them roll the stone away. He yells for Lazarus to come out, and Lazarus, still bound in funeral linens, stumbles out, the linens wrapped around his hands and feet and even his face. People rush to him and unwrap the linens so he can breathe.

So the question to us is pretty clear. Do we trust Jesus with our deaths? Do we trust Him with our lives? Some will, some won't. I do. I find Him trustworthy. Perhaps because he weeps when us when we are devastated. Whatever He's got going on on the other side of the door is where I want to be. As long as He's there.

Jesus Comforts Our Fear of Death is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

Grappling with Control and the Fear of Dying

Every so often I get a healthy perspective about the temporal nature of life. I'm reading a book now by a man in his 80′s who states in his introduction the first 80 years pass like a flash. His exact words are "Eighty years sounds like a long time until they are behind you."

I have a love/hate relationship with death. I like life. I enjoy getting up every morning. I like my job and my friends and the city where I live. I have bad days but not many. And I like building things in this life. I like building books and launching others into their careers. And yet every once in a while I realize this whole thing is going to be taken away. It's enough to make me quit, honestly. It's enough to make me wonder whether I'd not be better to get married and run a small shop and spend more time walking my dog along the river (I already spend plenty, so maybe that's overdoing it) because what's the point of building something when you just have to let it go?

I was with my friend Jim Chaffee recently for a rare speaking gig in a warm climate during winter (the previous month I had been in Edmonton, where it was ten below) and we took a day to just play in the sun. We rented jet skis and rode around the bay in St. Marten. Towering between the bay and the ocean stood the largest privately owned yacht in the world, owned by a russian businessman whose name I forget. It was pretty fun to ride my rented water scooter around the thing. It was as large as a cruise ship.

Later I found myself wondering how hard it would be if you were that guy, knowing all you've built and accumulated would have to be left behind. I wondered whether, even if he believed he were going to heaven, would wish he could stay since in heaven he'd likely just have to start all over. It's a silly thought but I was trying to put myself in his shoes, you know. I wondered whether he hated death, hated thinking about it, and, not unlike the Egyptian rulers of old had elaborate plans to keep his memory and power alive. I wondered whether he thought he could beat death.

The part of me that is uncomfortable with death is the same part of me that likes control. And none of us have control over death. I mean if we wanted, we could decide when we'd like to die, but we have no control over what happens after that. And not having control can be terrifying.

This whole following Jesus business is largely about giving Him control, or more, realizing we don't have control to begin with. And a great way to measure whether or not we've given Him our lives is to ask ourselves if we've given Him our death. By that I mean are we are okay with the fact that some day soon we are going to part with all that we've made, all that we've done, and no longer have an ounce of control over what happens on the earth?

I'll be very candid with you here. If it weren't for the reality of death, I'd have much more trouble following Christ. Death means some day I have to trust Him, and life is something like a preparatory academy for that moment. If I can trust Him with my death, I can trust Him with my life, and that means my next book and my romantic confusion and my anger and desire to get even and my money and all the rest. Death doesn't give me a choice. And so I'm thankful.

Tomorrow I want to look at a story in John that might help us trust Jesus with the tough reality of death.

Grappling with Control and the Fear of Dying is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog

The Sheep who Did Not Hear Jesus' Voice

On Yesterdays blog I talked about John chapter ten, in which Jesus tells us He is the Good Shepherd and the sheep will hear his voice. It's an exciting and comforting chapter if you consider yourself drawn to Christ and want to follow Him.

In the same chapter, though, He talks to a group of people who do not hear His voice, even though they are sitting right in front of Him talking to Him. It's sobering. Here's the exchange:

"So the Jews gathered around him and said to him "how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered them "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they fllow me. I give them eternal life and they wull never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.

There are, of course, all sorts of people who do not hear the voice of Jesus. We can't infer from this chapter that this is the only kind of person. But it might be helpful to note some characteristics so we can better recognize them in ourselves when they show their heads. Here are a few characteristics I see:

1. They have a strong pre-conceived notion as to what the Christ will look and sound like, and Jesus isn't fitting that notion at all. Jesus didn't come out of their schools, He likely does not dress like them. He knows the ancient text just like they do, but He does not interpret it the way they've been taught to interpret it, which is likely through a self-serving agenda.

2. He threatens their power. To believe this is the Christ, they are going to have to give up everything they've been building all these years. They are powerful men, they rule over people, people come to them for guidance and wisdom. If Jesus is the Christ, they're livelihood is likely gone. Paul would have this same struggle, but Jesus would confront Him personally. The issue is that if they follow Christ, they are no longer important people in their communities.

3. These are zealous men. They are willing to kill Jesus because He is claiming to be the Messiah. They are not a people of grace, they are a people of the law.

4. And as such, they would likely be threatened with physical retribution from their own community if they followed Christ.

5. They are people who want clarity. They don't like all this vague hippie talk coming from Jesus. How are they supposed to judge right from wrong, or moreover, who is important and who isn't with all this silly talk about sheep and shepherds?

6. Jesus likes their enemies. These are people who have very clear enemies and very clear lines about who is lesser than they are. Jesus befriends these enemies and even says they are the ones who hear His voice. These guys probably interpret this to mean that their enemies are right and they are wrong (not an accurate interpretation. the idea is that "the wrong" are loved and will receive grace and protection.)

To be sure, some people in this same predicament did follow Christ. Nicodemus is a good example. But in all, this is a group that is not ready to believe this strange, liberal guy from Nazareth is the great God of the universe.

The tough question to grapple with is would you? I mean if believing in Christ would cost you your importance, would you follow Him? If it would shame you amongst your friends, would you follow Him all the same? If it meant you could no longer be an expert judge in your field of influence, would you follow Him? And the big one, if Jesus loved your enemies, would you still side with Jesus? And this speaks nothing of the financial problems following Christ would entail.

So we see here that following Christ involves a bit of sacrifice. Good stuff to consider. I think the reward of knowing Him outweighs the sacrifice, for sure. There is freedom when we submit ourselves to Him, no matter how that disrupts our lives. I'd rather trust in the security He offers than the security I've created out of false and temporal systems.

The Sheep who Did Not Hear Jesus' Voice is a post from: Donald Miller's Blog