:: entering 2013 I set myself a personal challenge: read 52 books this year. why? if you read well you write well. read the book list here ::

[image via Google, Donald Miller (author of Searching For God Knows What)]

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about my faith. Growing up in church, being in Sunday school, knowing all the Bible stories, currently studying theology, + being an active contributor in my local church… Faith is a big chunk of what I do. And there comes a time, for everyone, where you have to discover what it is you truly believe + why you believe it.

Studying theology is messing with my beliefs + redefining everything I ever believed. But it’s the kind of mess you want + need to have at some stage in your life. On top of that, I just finished reading Donald Miller’s book Searching For God Knows What.

Donald Miller is an author I greatly admire – in fact, his book Blue Like Jazz was the first book I wrote about in this series. His books take the hard + messy when it comes to faith, spirituality, + theology, and delivers it in a relevant, simplistic, + thought-provoking way.

This book is no different.

And it completely made me see the Bible, God, + Jesus in an entire new light.

Without giving too much away, here are two examples that stuck out to me:

// Adam + Eve in the Garden of Eden: Adam’s loneliness, Eve’s introduction, the Fall, the shame of being naked. The part that got me? His thoughts on Genesis chapter 3 – God told them not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good + Evil, but He didn’t tell them about Satan, deception or lies. Which brings up the question of: why did He let the snake freely roam without telling or warning them? Donald’s whole storytelling + thought process of this is told so beautifully, intricately, + with such reverence, purity + love.

[note: spoke to mum about the above + she gave a great illustration: as a parent you don't tell or warn your child about every bad thing... I'm not a parent so I don't fully understand this, but it gives another level to Genesis 3. And Donald's right when he says this passage totally raises many questions for God that we will probably never have answers too while here on earth. And that's okay.]

// Lifeboat Theory he heard in school: there’s a lifeboat adrift in the sea with a male lawyer, female doctor, crippled child, stay-at-home mother, + a garbage man, + one person had to be thrown overboard to save the others – who would you choose? When everyone is created equal + with the same worth, it’s interesting who pops into your head first, hey?

Above all, the pages of this book weave together Donald’s own faith journey with an ancient + eternal text. His honesty, questions, + humility is fresh. Rather than shoving his thoughts into your face or telling you ‘your theology is wrong!’, his books serves as a navigation where you’re enlightened, challenged, + encouraged to really think about what it is you believe.

The introduction to this book is the essence of such thoughts:

“…and through a dark night of the soul, I came to realize salvation happens through a mysterious, indefinable, relational interaction with Jesus in which we become one with him. I realized Christian conversion worked more like falling in love than understanding a series of concepts or ideas. This is not to say there are no true ideas, it is only to say there is something else, something beyond. There are true ideas involved in marriage and sex, but marriage and sex also involve something else, and that something else is mysterious.

If we have a controlling personality, in which we like to check things off of lists, this is going to be extremely hard for us to understand and embrace. God give us no control, really, over this “system” of relationship. Introducing somebody to Jesus is not about presenting ideas, then, as much as it is introducing a person to a Deity who lives and interacts. Evangelism, then, looks like setting somebody up on a blind date: God does the work, we just tell them about him and where they can find him.

You might be getting upset by this. You might think I am saying truth should be thrown out, that theology doesn’t matter. But this is not what I’m saying at all. What I’m intending to illustrate is our drive to define God with a mathematical theology has become a false God rather than an arrow that points to the real God. Theology can become an idol, but it is more useful as guardrails on a road to the true God. Theology is very important, but it is not God, and knowing facts about God is not the same as knowing God.“

And above theology + all that jazz, he really taps into the foundation, purpose, + reason behind it all: relationship

“The Bible is a relational document, + theology is basically the charts + lists we have made out of the document.” (p71)

:: the rundown ::

First Sentence: “Some time ago I attended a seminar for Christian writers. It was in a big hotel down South + hotels always make me uncomfortable because the bedding is so fluffy + the television swivels, + who makes coffee in the bathroom?”

Favourite Quote: “And there is nothing wrong with being beautiful or being athletic or being smart, but those are some of the pleasures of life, not life’s redemption.”

Highlight: The use of Shakespeare’s Romeo&Juliet as the base of the final chapter. This was unexpected + smartly done – how he pulled it apart, looked at it historically, + related it to back to the essence of the book. Despite being a book discussing theology, it is grounded, human, + real.

Who should read it? Is the perfect read for late-teens + twenty-somethings. No matter your religion or stance, it will broaden your thinking, a lot.

// You can purchase Searching for God Knows What here.