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Review – “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller

Mar 19th, 2010
by Michael Krahn.
7 comments

screen-shot-2009-09-29-at-94510-am.pngReading “A Million Miles…” is like talking to an old friend, one you used to love and spend a lot of time with but for whatever reason haven’t seen for a long time. This friend used to captivate you and you would enjoy being in their presence so much you wondered if you were smothering them (sometimes you probably were). But in the years between then and now you’ve forgotten just how warm and exciting being with them was.

When I sat down to read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life I had fond memories of Donald Miller’s surprise best-seller from a few years ago, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality (see my blog posts about it here). By the time I was 20 pages in, I remembered BLJ as that old friend, one that I forgotten I loved so much. One that made me laugh out loud in public places, despite my best efforts to appear completely sane. One that had changed my life in a few ways.

Review continued below…

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And it makes sense that I was so reminded of BLJ because “A Million Miles…” is mostly about BLJ. It’s about the book, and how Miller’s life was changed by the success of the book and how – which is most exciting for an artist – his life was positively affected by his own art.

The best thing about this book and BLJ is that they throw you into a torrent of self-reflection with the strangest of motivation. There are no commands here, no guilt trips, just Don Miller taking a brutally honest look at his own life and writing about it. And somehow this inspires us to do the same. We see the character making progress, we see his life improving as he very intentionally crafts his own story and we know that this is also possible for us.

“Perhaps one of the reasons I’ve avoided having a clear ambition is that the second you stand up and point toward a horizon, you realize how much there is to lose.” – Donald Miller

screen-shot-2009-09-29-at-103140-am.png

Searching For God Knows What

Memoirs are such fun to read, and when Miller is writing in memoir mode he is among the greats. When not in memoir mode, however, he can come across as simply another disgruntled Evangelical, as was clearly evident in Searching for God Knows What (blog post here).

In truth, the same theology runs through all of his writing, but in the form of a memoir it seems less agitating. Much like any other friend who has theology I disagree with, in conversational form it is so much more tolerable – actually, it’s enjoyable. It’s like we’re sitting in a room together discussing our differences, each willing to hear the other, each convincing the other on some points, and being convinced on others.

I was pleased to read on p222 Don say “I didn’t say these things, and I’m glad I didn’t, because those are the things people who have never been married say.” Another issue with “Searching For God…” was that he kept saying unwise things that were exactly what only an unmarried non-parent would say. In the margins of my copy of that book I wrote things like “Hey Don, get back to me once you have children and let me know if you still think this is true…”.

A Million Miles…

I digress… “A Million Miles…” is not just an entertaining read, it calls you to a brutal honestly about your life. In the language of the book itself, it calls you to write and then live a better story with your life, while acknowledging that there is a Writer above you also writing your story:

“So as I was writing my novel, and as my characters did what they wanted, I became more and more aware that somebody was writing me. So I started listening to the Voice, or rather, I started calling it the Voice and admitting there was a Writer. I admitted something other than me was showing a better way. And when I did this, I realized the Voice, the Writer who was not me, was trying to make a better story, a more meaningful series of experiences I could live through.” – Donald Miller

Fellow writers/authors will love this book because so much of it is about the process of writing. Others may find his analogies of God as a writer/literary being a bit of a stretch. They are a bit of a stretch, but often, as in this case, the stretch makes the art more powerful.

If you enjoy Miller’s writing and would like to read more in the same vein, his writing is reminiscent of authors like Anne Lamott (read: “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith“) and Madeleine L’Engle (read: “Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage” or “The Irrational Season“) in all the best ways.

One other byproduct of reading Miller’s work: it inspires me to write, which is why this review is getting so long! Well, I reviewed BLJ in six lengthy posts, so one post for this book is actually pretty short.

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(Re: Donald Miller) Quoted in the ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Oct 5th, 2009
by Michael Krahn.
No comments yet

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a journalist named Jessica Clark for a quote on Donald Miller’s new book. Here’s the piece she wrote:

Million Miles author stops in LR

JESSICA CLARK ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

A New York Times bestselling author says he knows the ingredients to a meaningful life and he’s sharing them Tuesday in Little Rock.

Recently, Donald Miller hit the road to talk about his newest book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life, which chronicles Miller’s discoveries. The book tour will span two months and tens of thousands of miles, during which Miller will visit 65 cities.

Miller will make a stop in Little Rock at Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas to share what he says makes a worthwhile life, which he learned from screenwriters while working on turning Blue Like Jazz into a movie which will premiere in 2010.

“Screenwriters have discovered what makes life meaningful because they have to put it on-screen in a movie. I’ll share what it is they’ve discovered and how I applied those principles to my life and what happened because of it,” he said.

Mosaic Church was contacted by Miller’s executive assistant with the idea of being a host for the book tour. Mark DeYmaz, Mosaic Church’s directional leader, said it was a good fit because the church and Miller have a “missional mind-set” and live out their faith.

“It’s not about attracting people to the church, it is about motivating the church to go to people where they are in bars, college campuses or wherever,” DeYmaz said. “Miller lives out a missional lifestyle and is authentic with people that wouldn’t step into a church.”

Miller, 37, had been writing since he was a child, he said. His first book, Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance, was published by Harvest House Publishers, but it wasn’t until he wrote Blue Like Jazz that his writing career took off. Published by Thomas Nelson, a Christian book publisher, Blue Like Jazz has sold more than 1 million copies and made The New York Times best-seller list 45 weeks since it was released six years ago. It is a book made up of essays about spirituality and his reflections about Christianity.

Miller says his new release offers readers a different perspective. “In other books I was asking a lot of questions, in this book there is more hope,” he said.

“His early stuff is like unedited journal writing, but he gets more controlled and precise as he goes,” Christianity Today freelance writer Patton Dodd said. “He expertly and naturally captures the young evangelical zeitgeist [spirit of the age], but he pushes on its borders.”

http://www.bagofnothing.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/donalmillerf.jpg“The best thing about Miller’s books is that they throw you into a torrent of self-reflection with the strangest of motivation,” said Michael Krahn, a Canadian minister and blogger. “There are no guilt trips, no commands, just Miller taking a brutally honest look at his own life and writing about it and somehow this inspires us to do the same.”

In his new book, Miller adapts the elements that make a good movie into his own life to make it more interesting.

“In studying the elements of a screenplay and editing a movie based on a memoir [Blue Like Jazz], I was editing a fictional version of myself. I wanted my own life to be more like the fictional version of me so I made some changes in my own life and rode my bike across America.”

Miller spent seven weeks riding his bike across the United States raising money for Blood: Water Mission. He also found his biological father whom he hadn’t heard from in 30 years and he hiked the Inca Trail in Peru just to impress a girl.

“A Million Miles is probably Don’s most mature book, yet it is classic Don Miller in that it offers readers an entertaining, one-of-a-kind experience,” his publisher, Brian Hampton, said.

The focus of Miller’s book tour is to get people to realize that “we can live better stories, and when the credits roll in our lives we can have a sense of fulfillment and meaning because of what we’ve experienced,” he said.

After the tour, Miller will work with his nonprofit organization, The Mentoring Project. The Portland, Ore.-based group mentors children growing up without fathers.

“We’ll be releasing a revised edition of Searching for God Knows What next spring and further down the road there will be another book,” Hampton said.

“I believe my best stories are ahead of me. I don’t think I’ve told many good ones so far,” Miller said. “Since I’ve understood the power of a story, the power of a good protagonist wanting something noble and overcoming conflict to get it, I haven’t been able to go back to a normal life.”

“An Evening With Donald Miller” will be 7 p.m. Tuesday at Mosaic Church, 6420 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock. Tickets are $15. More information is available at amillionmiles.com.

Review – “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” by Donald Miller

Sep 29th, 2009
by Michael Krahn.
2 comments

screen-shot-2009-09-29-at-94510-am.pngReading “A Million Miles…” is like talking to an old friend, one you used to love and spend a lot of time with but for whatever reason haven’t seen for a long time. This friend used to captivate you and you would enjoy being in their presence so much you wondered if you were smothering them (sometimes you probably were). But in the years between then and now you’ve forgotten just how warm and exciting being with them was.

When I sat down to read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life I had fond memories of Donald Miller’s surprise best-seller from a few years ago, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality (see my blog posts about it here). By the time I was 20 pages in, I remembered BLJ as that old friend, one that I forgotten I loved so much. One that made me laugh out loud in public places, despite my best efforts to appear completely sane. One that had changed my life in a few ways.

Want a free copy of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller?

Here’s how:

  1. Subscribe via email or feedburner (comment and let me know)
  2. Retweet this post by clicking here.

All names will be entered into a spreadsheet and the winner will be chosen at random via Random.org. Contest closes Friday March 26, 2010. The winner will be announced after confirming their mailing address. Best of luck and thanks to all who enter!

And it makes sense that I was so reminded of BLJ because “A Million Miles…” is mostly about BLJ. It’s about the book, and how Miller’s life was changed by the success of the book and how – which is most exciting for an artist – his life was positively affected by his own art.

The best thing about this book and BLJ is that they throw you into a torrent of self-reflection with the strangest of motivation. There are no commands here, no guilt trips, just Don Miller taking a brutally honest look at his own life and writing about it. And somehow this inspires us to do the same. We see the character making progress, we see his life improving as he very intentionally crafts his own story and we know that this is also possible for us.

“Perhaps one of the reasons I’ve avoided having a clear ambition is that the second you stand up and point toward a horizon, you realize how much there is to lose.” – Donald Miller

screen-shot-2009-09-29-at-103140-am.png

Searching For God Knows What

Memoirs are such fun to read, and when Miller is writing in memoir mode he is among the greats.  When not in memoir mode, however, he can come across as simply another disgruntled Evangelical, as was clearly evident in Searching for God Knows What (blog post here).

In truth, the same theology runs through all of his writing, but in the form of a memoir it seems less agitating. Much like any other friend who has theology I disagree with, in conversational form it is so much more tolerable – actually, it’s enjoyable. It’s like we’re sitting in a room together discussing our differences, each willing to hear the other, each convincing the other on some points, and being convinced on others.

I was pleased to read on p222 Don say “I didn’t say these things, and I’m glad I didn’t, because those are the things people who have never been married say.” Another issue with “Searching For God…” was that he kept saying unwise things that were exactly what only an unmarried non-parent would say. In the margins of my copy of that book I wrote things like “Hey Don, get back to me once you have children and let me know if you still think this is true…”.

A Million Miles…

I digress… “A Million Miles…” is not just an entertaining read, it calls you to a brutal honestly about your life. In the language of the book itself, it calls you to write and then live a better story with your life, while acknowledging that there is a Writer above you also writing your story:

“So as I was writing my novel, and as my characters did what they wanted, I became more and more aware that somebody was writing me. So I started listening to the Voice, or rather, I started calling it the Voice and admitting there was a Writer. I admitted something other than me was showing a better way. And when I did this, I realized the Voice, the Writer who was not me, was trying to make a better story, a more meaningful series of experiences I could live through.” – Donald Miller

Fellow writers/authors will love this book because so much of it is about the process of writing. Others may find his analogies of God as a writer/literary being a bit of a stretch. They are a bit of a stretch, but often, as in this case, the stretch makes the art more powerful.

If you enjoy Miller’s writing and would like to read more in the same vein, his writing is reminiscent of authors like Anne Lamott (read: “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith“) and Madeleine L’Engle (read: “Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage” or “The Irrational Season“) in all the best ways.

One other byproduct of reading Miller’s work: it inspires me to write, which is why this review is getting so long! Well, I reviewed BLJ in six lengthy posts, so one post for this book is actually pretty short.

Want a free copy of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller?

Here’s how:

  1. Subscribe via email or feedburner (comment and let me know)
  2. Retweet this post by clicking here.

All names will be entered into a spreadsheet and the winner will be chosen at random via Random.org. Contest closes Friday March 26, 2010. The winner will be announced after confirming their mailing address. Best of luck and thanks to all who enter!

Searching for Donald Miller

May 16th, 2009
by Michael Krahn.
No comments yet

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-0-ash-YL._SL500_AA240_.jpgI think Donald is one of, if not THE brightest of “our” writers. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality deserves a place on the highest shelf of that genre… I’m thinking of Madeleine L’engle and Anne Lamott here… and maybe a bit of P.J. O’Rourke. Honestly, Blue Like Jazz changed a few parts of my life, and that ain’t hyperbole.

However, I was equally disappointed with Searching for God Knows What. You know how musicians who are Christians are saying things like “Hey, I’m not an authority on stuff. I just write and sing about living my life as a Christian. Don’t hold me up to be higher that you.”? I feel like Don turned that around in SFGKW. He’s a great writer, but in that book he tried to be a theologian and the effect was just the opposite of BLJ. He came off as an arrogant, left-of-liberal theologian instead of the regular guy reflecting on life experiences he was in BLJ.

I can tolerate a lot of theology that doesn’t match my own in a work like BLJ, or Lamott’s Traveling Mercies, or any number of L’Engle’s books. What I find hard to stomach is a writer like Don trying to be definitive on matters in which he is not an expert. I’m not either, BTW.

“Write what you know”, right? Either that or explore what you don’t know humbly and with an open mind.  Don repeatedly uses analogies about marriage, raising kids, and to a lesser extent sports to make his theological points. In those first two categories he has no experience on which to draw – which isn’t to say those categories are completely off-limits for him.

So I found myself writing in the columns of the book a number times – writing things like “Hey Don, try this line of reasoning again after you’re married and see if it still rings true to you” and “Hey Don, get back to me once you have some kids and have thought through this in real time.”

I guess the annoyance was exacerbated by the fact that I loved BLJ so much.

Sorry for riffing on Don so much. Its been a blog post sort of waiting to happen so I guess this was my rough draft.

Mark Driscoll on ABC’s Nightline

Jan 24th, 2009
by Michael Krahn.
1 comment

A couple of weeks ago, Driscoll was in the New York Times, now it’s ABC’s Nightline. (*UPDATE: here is a direct link to the segment or watch below)

Driscoll is getting a lot of attention because of his recent sermon series on The Song of Solomon called “The Peasant Princess” (see series website)  in which he preaches on and discusses issues of sexuality.

The characterizations in the recent wave of media attention are somewhat dated in that they focus on Mark’s reputation as a punchline-loving jock. This is still true to an extent, but if you are a member of Driscoll’s church or a regular mark-driscoll.jpglistener you know that such characterizations are more representative of an earlier version of Driscoll.

Unfortunately, the old title “Cussing Pastor”, made famous in Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, still gets thrown around, even though what may have led to this title happened a decade or more ago and no audio of Driscoll actually cussing has been delivered. His language can be harsh, and has occasionally been unnecessarily offensive, but a label such as “Cussing Pastor” is misleading.

Driscoll has repented of things he’s said before,  and he’ll probably give himself occasion to do so again. But listen to a more recent sermon – you’ll hear the heart of a young, fiery, maturing pastor who is more concerned with evangelization and tending his flock than with delivering punchlines.

Download and listen to a recent Driscoll sermon called “

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

” or listen to it below.

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The ABC writeup does include this quote from Driscoll at the end of it:

“I think, to be honest with you, humility is something that, by God’s grace, I’m learning,” he said. “I would not pretend to be an expert in humility.”

For those familiar with Driscoll, this quote is where the real story is.

More Thoughts on “The Shack”

Jan 17th, 2009
by Michael Krahn.
No comments yet

**These are some additional thoughts on my review of the book found here.**

I don’t agree with the entire book but at many places I found myself elated that this is out there “in the wild” being read by many non-Christians.

I realize how many people around me are against the book, but I don’t think ANY (or many) of them have actually read it.  I have determined not to come out strongly against some books based on the word of others. I just finished Rob Bell’s latest so I’ll be putting something up about that shortly as well.

But this should tell you how much my mind changed on the book by reading it.

I have a tolerance for fiction and personal reflection books, which is why I can read Donald Miller and Anne Lamott and Madeleine L’Engle, etc. and totally disagree with some of their views while still gaining a lot from their writings.  Same goes for The Shack.

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Donald Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz” (6 of 6) – Don on: Love

Oct 8th, 2008
by Michael Krahn.
1 comment

***You might want to read part1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5 first***

ani_difranco.jpg“I wish Ani DiFranco wasn’t a Lesbian.” 

So begins Miller’s chapter on love.  It’s another fine example of why this book would never have shown up in Christian bookstore even a decade ago.   At any rate, Don continues (if you don’t know anything about Ani DiFranco you won’t find this very funny.  Personally I think it’s hilarious:

“I am listening to her right now, and I think I would marry her if she’d have me.  I would hang out in the front row at all her concerts and sing along and pump my fist and get angry at all the right times.  Then, later, on the bus, she would lay her head on a pillow in my lap, and I would get my fingers tangled in her dreadlocks while we watched Charlie Rose on television.”

Don has some interesting fantasies to say the least – this one seems like the artist’s equivalent of a geek fantasy about being the captain of the Starship Enterprise.  And last I heard, Don, Ani is no longer a lesbian (exclusively anyway) and is married to a guy from a city 20 minutes from where I live.

“If Ani DiFranco and I got married, I would write books on the bus ride between cities and in the evening, after the concerts, we would watch Charlie Rose, and three or four times each night we would whisper, Good question, Charlie, good question.  But none of this will happen because Ani DiFranco is not attracted to men, I don’t think.  Otherwise we would be on.”

These are the fantasies of a desperately single, artistically inclined man.  Good luck, Don.

Miller is a first rate writer – in this book anyway – and from the audio I’ve heard of him he’s also an engaging and hilarious speaker. 

******

Post Script – I’ve read another entire book of his now and I disliked it as much I liked Blue Like Jazz.  It is a book that is more focused on theology and in it Don seems to be in way over his head, regurgitating half-baked ideas with a more that subtle liberal bias.  I’ll post some thoughts on that eventually.

*******

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Donald Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz” (5) – Confession is a Two Way Street

Oct 2nd, 2008
by Michael Krahn.
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***You might want to read part1, part 2, part 3, and part 4 first***

confessional.jpgI’m quite certain Don’s chapter on confession is unlike anything you’ve read before.  The subtitle of this chapter is “Coming Out of the Closet” and in it Don recounts the experience of setting up a confession booth in the middle of the campus of a liberal secular university with a sign on the outside that said, “confess your sins.”  This was supposed to happen during a week in which the campus is shut down so the students can party.  That might sound like an uncommon yet bold and arrogant evangelism tactic, but all who entered the booth were in for a surprise.

It was Don’s idea to set up a confession booth but it was Tony the Beat Poet that added the twist. They would build the confession booth as Don had imagined, and they would be in the booth but they would be there to confess to the students.  They would be there to own up to the many brutal things that have been done in Jesus’ name.  The students expecting to enter the area of the booth where they would confess instead found themselves on the receiving end of the confessions of Christians.

I will tell you now that I don’t believe that all of those brutal things done in the name of Jesus were actually done by Christians.  How could they be?  These were not merely impulsive acts done in a moment of weakness and frustration; these were events – sometimes years and decades long – that required continual rededication to their completion.  But the evidence is staggering and there is no doubt that brutal and murderous things were indeed done in the name of Jesus.  And so I think that what Donald Miller and his friends did on that campus was a good thing.  It is a refreshing change to outright denial and, much worse, attempts to justify what happened.

“For so much of my life,” Miller writes, “I had been defending Christianity because I thought to admit that we had done any wrong was to discredit the religious system as a whole, but it isn’t a religious system, it is people following Christ; and the important thing to do, the right thing to do, was to apologize for getting in the way of Jesus.”

As the first confessor entered the booth Miller was lacking confidence and wasn’t sure he could actually carry through with his intentions.  After a bit of small talk, Miller finally began to confess:

“There’s a lot and I will keep it short.  Jesus said to feed the poor and heal the sick.  I have never done very much about that.  Jesus said to love those who persecute me.  I tend to lash out, especially if I feel threatened, you know, if my ego is threatened.  Jesus did not mix his spirituality with his politics.  I grew up doing that.  I got in the way of the central message of Christ.  I know that was wrong, and I know that a lot of people will not listen to the words of Christ because of people like me, who know him, carry our own agendas into the conversation rather than just relaying the message Christ wanted to get across.  There’s a lot more, you know.”

This is a confession that all but the most arrogant Christian can make.  We are all guilty of most of the things Don listed in his confession.

Go to part 6

*****************************************
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McKnight: “McLaren Emerging”

Sep 29th, 2008
by Michael Krahn.
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Scot McKnight provides more of his trademark clarity in a recent article in Christianity Today:

I maintain a crucial distinction between two related streams: emergent and the broader emerging movement. Emergent is crystallized in Emergent Village and its leaders Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, and Doug Pagitt. Emerging is a mix of orthodox, missional, evangelical, church-centered, and social justice leaders and lay folk. When I think of this broader emerging movement, I think of Dan Kimball at Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, Dave Dunbar at Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch and their book The Shaping of Things to Come, and Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz. Some of this was anticipated by Lesslie Newbigin’s many writings and is now sketched in Tom Sine’s The New Conspirators. Furthermore, I see emerging trends in megachurches like Willow Creek Community Church and Saddleback Church.

Despite what some critics assume, Brian McLaren, the most controversial of emergent leaders, does not represent all things emerging. But he does represent the more progressive wing, and his latest books offer a glimpse of where that movement might be heading.

(read entire article)

Donald Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz” (4) – Ch-ch-ch-changes

Sep 22nd, 2008
by Michael Krahn.
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***You might want to read part1, part 2, and part 3 first***PART 4:

book_bluelikejazz.jpgI also want you to know that I believe what Don says about Jesus giving us the ability to love the things we should because I have experienced the transformation.  I could have written, word-for-word what Don says next:

“I tried to love the right things without God’s help, and it was impossible.  I tried to go one week without thinking a negative thought about another human being, and I couldn’t do it.  Before I tried that experiment, I thought I was a nice person, but after trying it, I realized I thought bad things about people all day long, and that, like Tony says, my natural desire was to love darkness.”

That paragraph threw me into a period of self-examination, with periodic recurrences ever since.  And this is not just changing the way I think about other people, it’s also having a profound effect on the way I think about myself.  It’s changing me from being a receiver to being a giver.  It’s helping me to see that I have a lot in the bank when it comes to having things to offer.  Things I haven’t attained entirely on my own, but stored up through a great childhood and a lot of years of experience making mistakes in my life as a Christian. 

Instead of always looking for the next opportunity to consume I’m looking for ways to serve others. So, for example, the next time a Promise Keepers event comes to town, rather than bashing it as being of no use to me (which I have to say it is not), because I see that it really IS of use to a great number of men, I’m going to volunteer to pray or counsel or run security.  I’m putting legs to the idea that “it is better to give than to receive”.

Of course really putting legs to this idea means living it in the place where I spend the most of my waking hours: at work.  It’s the toughest place for me to successfully NOT think bad thoughts about people for an entire day.  But I like challenges.  I think working a normal job should be a prerequisite for every person who wants to have a full-time church job.  I think one decade is a nice qualifying number.  You need to spend ten years, one decade, working a normal job before you can work in the church. 

How many Bible college students would drop out with that prerequisite in place?  And from the ones who saw it through, how many would go on to be far more mature and effective leaders in their churches and, just as importantly, in their non-church communities?  (Ok, so this is an easy requirement for me because I’ve already fulfilled it – I’ve worked for 13 years and am now contemplating a career move into ministry.)

But in keeping with my “I AM THE PROBLEM” line of thought, I want to tell you about the a response I gave to some questions I was asked while I was reading this book. The questions were about the format of the Sunday morning services at the church I attend.  Things like “How do you like the music?” and “What could we do to enhance your worship experience?”  I started to answer as I normally would but then found myself writing in response:

I am an elitist.  

I want the world to revolve around me.  

I want friends who are like me in every way.  

I want to change people who are not like me so that they are like me.  

I want to be efficient about friendship.  

I want people to meet my criteria if I’m going to spend my precious time on them. 

I am selfish. 

So, what do I want in a church service?  I’m not sure you should care.

Now I should point out that the “I AM THE PROBLEM” philosophy was still in trickledown mode at this point and after a bit more conversation I did back off from the extreme but still, this was a very uncharacteristic response for me.  I have a lot of opinions about everything. Find someone who knows me, even a little, and they’ll confirm that for you.  I have enough trouble thinking overly well of myself without someone encouraging me to think about myself a bit more yet.  I am a recovering self-addict, and like an alcoholic I’ll always be recovering.

go to part 5

 

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