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In Searching for God Knows What, best-selling author Donald Miller invites you to reconnect with a faith worth believing. With humor, intelligence, and his trademark writing style, he shows that relationship is God's way of leading us to redemption. And our need for redemption drives us to relationship with God. "Being a Christian," Miller writes, "is more like falling in love than understanding a series of ideas." Maybe you are a Christian wondering what faith you signed up for. Or maybe you don't believe anything and are daring someone--anyone--to show you a genuine example of authentic faith. Somewhere beyond the self-help formulas, fancy marketing, and easy promises there is a life-changing experience with God waiting. Searching for God Knows What weaves together beautiful stories and fresh perspectives on the Bible to show one man's journey to find it. "Like a shaken snow globe, Donald Miller's newest collection of essays creates a swirl of ideas about the Christian life that eventually crystallize into a lovely landscape . . . [He] is one of the evangelical book market's most creative writers." --Christianity Today "If you have felt that Jesus is someone you respect and admire--but Christianity is something that repels you--Searching for God Knows What will give you hope that you still can follow Jesus and be part of a church without the trappings of organized religion." --Dan Kimball Author of The Emerging Church and Pastor of Vintage Faith Church, Santa Cruz, CA "For fans of Blue Like Jazz, I doubt you will be disappointed. Donald Miller writes with the wit and vulnerability that you expect. He perfectly illustrates important themes in a genuine and humorous manner . . . For those who would be reading Miller for the first time, this would be a great start." --Relevant … (more)
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To illustrate the point, the quotes in the "praise" section in the beginning of the book include names like Brian MacLaren and Dan Kimball, who would not agree with me at all as to the definition of the Gospel. We are about as far opposed as possible in theology. So if neither I or Brian MacLaren can find a point of disagreement in this book (that supposes to explore the meaning of the Gospel), I have to conclude that the Gospel was not very thoroughly defined.
Many people would not care. They would say that Christianity is more about serving and living right. I am happy to say that Miller does not fall into that trap. Shallowly defined as it is, the Gospel is of primary interest of this book.
That's the way it should be. After all, Christians are no where defined as people who live better than other people. We are not "good people," or even often "better people." We are "forgiven people." The good news of the Gospel is not a call to live better lives, though that is often the result of the Gospel. The good news of the Gospel is that, even though we are sinners who deserve nothing less than death for our sins of greed, lust, hatred, and selfishness, Jesus came to earth to die that death we deserve. In repentance and faith we can be forgiven.
I wish that had been more defined in this book, because it's good news indeed.
A friend of mine lent this to me months ago because it related to a conversation we were having at the time. Of course, I've since forgotten the original impetus, but it didn't really matter in the end. Miller's style is extremely conversational and not particularly well-written, with a few over-the-top analogies to make his points. At least once, he got his facts wrong, as when he says that King Herod had the children of Israel murdered (according to Matthew 2, he ordered that boys under the age of 2 in Bethlehem and the vicinity be killed, not the entirety of Israel). Despite these flaws, from time to time a sentence or a paragraph would make me stop in my reading tracks. He would manage to crystallize an idea or use an illustration that was truly thought-provoking. I didn't always agree with Miller, ultimately. He clearly does not "get" sports, for example, and his politics clash with mine. But I enjoyed the challenge to think about exactly what I believe about my relationship with God, and how this necessarily affects my relationship with others.
This book, like “Blue Like Jazz”, kept me pretty interested - when I’ve been asked what it was about, I have trouble finding an answer though.. Again this
I’m still a little thrown back at Don’s attempt at making sure that every reader knows he likes to smoke a pipe and drink beer. It’s not AS prevelant in this book, but there nonetheless.
There is some amazing insight into who God is in this book to be sure. Some paragraphs needed to be read a few times for me to even attempt to grasp the ideas Miller was putting out there. I’ll say that the last chapter was pretty incredible - relating the Love of God to the love Romeo and Juliet had and showed in the Skakespeare play. Pretty interesting.
This book's thesis is that we all need a relationship with God but that, because of what
Another main point is that everyone has their idea of who God is and who Jesus is, and that we're probably all wrong because we're trying to cast Him/Them in our terms and that, coincidentally, He/They completely agree with how we view the world.
One thing that did strike me was (and this gets back to the idea that we seek elsewhere for affirmation) that he said that religion-baiting is actually Satan's work. For an example, he mentioned that he grew up Baptist and was always pretty smug around his Methodist friends because they had it wrong. Now, though, "It all sounds you innocent until you realize whatever evil thing it was that caused me to believe Baptists are better than Methodists is the same evil thing that has Jews killing Palstinians rather than talking to them, and for that matter, Palestinians killing Jews rather than engaging in an important conversation about land and history and peace."
I do feel like a lot of the time, we define ourselves in terms of being better or worse than other people, and that bothers me.
I think I preferred Blue Like Jazz, though.
He uses
These and other metaphors are used through the book, until he reaches the heart of what he's trying to say: that comparisons are pointless, and the world is shallow. That Christianity is not a religion of bullet points or formulae, but a living, loving relationship with Jesus Christ.
All in all, I thought it excellent and thought-provoking and will probably read it again in a few years. Highly recommended.