It's all about the Relationship

I can’t figure out Donald Miller. He defies definition and that probably suits him just fine. I didn’t do much research on him before choosing to read one of his books. His writing had been recommended to me because his work appeals to young adults these days. So when I began to read Searching for God Knows What, I quickly assumed from his style that Miller was himself part of the Millennial Generation. I was wrong. He’s in his 40s! He writes, however, the way my three sons talk, who are in their late teens and early twenties. His style is direct, to the point of being raw at times. He has a goofy sense of humor and a candor not unlike Stephen Colbert, but unlike Colbert, there is a tremendous honestly about his own foolishness and failings. I like Donald Miller. His book reads almost like a devotional, only richer and much more complex.

Having said I like Donald Miller, I suffered with his literalistic interpretation of scripture. Miller comes from a conservative, maybe fundamentalist background but has clearly differentiated from that background in many ways. He is critical of formulaic Christianity which wants to reduce Christian faith to a set of spiritual laws or steps to “becoming a Christian.” Miller contends the larger picture of the Bible provides a narrative of God’s love story intended to win humanity. Miller believes following Jesus is about being in a relationship with him and not in name only. Miller wants us to cling to Jesus, to focus our lives around him, to fall in love with him. He says, “It is somewhat amazing to me… that all of Christianity, all our grids and mathematics and truths and differing groups subscribing to different theological ideas, boils down to our knowing Jesus and His knowing us.” (p. 200) This is the part of his Biblical interpretation where Miller is strong. He’s good at the large sweep of the scriptures.

It’s the little stuff that bugged me in his Biblical assertions. I was astounded that he thinks Moses wrote the book of Job and the first five books of the Bible (p.53), less surprised at the classical interpretation of the snake as Satan (p. 203), disappointed in his willingness to frequently attribute human failing to the enticement of the evil one, astonished that he would use the suffering servant song of Isaiah 53 to suggest that Jesus was ugly(p. 125), and dismayed at the long list of Old Testament scriptures yanked out of context to be put forth as prophesies for this or that detail about the life of Christ (p. 143). He makes Matthew look like a rookie. I write this only because I think Miller’s book is terrific, but the reader needs to be aware that he doesn’t have a strong Biblical/theological education.

Where Donald Miller shines is in his observations about humankind. Miller has beautifully understood and articulated the human predicament. Drawing on a brutally honest assessment of his own life, Miller maintains that humankind suffers from an identity crisis that has its origins in the Garden. Miller proposes that when the humans rejected God, or betrayed God, or however you want to think about, God withdrew his “glory” or presence from us. The result of this missing piece in our lives is we no longer know who we are. We try to fill the emptiness within us in a variety of ways: the accumulation of things, the gathering of successes, our pretty appearance, our intelligence and most importantly, the approval of others. We go around trying to get ahead of the other guy so we can feel better about ourselves. We throw ourselves into relationships hoping to be assured we are people of value. It is this empty searching that Miller believes can only be satisfied by a relationship with God. He would suggest this most important relationship is best experienced in a walk with Jesus of Nazareth, and only when we come to know him and be known by him will we come to know who we are. This is good stuff! This is the heart of what Miller wants to communicate and makes the book a really worthwhile read, in spite of the irritating Biblical literalism.

In terms of the quest of this particular blog, I think Miller’s narrative style and humorous candor give him great appeal to young adults. I suppose young readers might also like the game Miller has developed that one can play while reading his book. Certain highlighted letters and strange numbers appear now and then in the text that can be collected and decoded through a web site. Prizes are then awarded for correct answers. OMG! I didn’t play. I’m too old.