You would think some of the writers of the Bible would have gone to a Christian writers’ seminar to learn the magical formulas about how to dangle a carrot in front of a rabbit, but they didn’t. Instead, the writers of the Bible tell a lot of stories and account for a lot of history and write down a lot of poems and recite a great many boring numbers and then conclude with various creepy hallucinations that, in some mysterious way, explain the future, in which, apparently, we all slip into Dungeons and Dragons outfits and fight the giant frog people. I forget how it goes exactly, and I mean no disrespect. But because it is so scatterbrained, and has virtually no charts and graphs, I am actually quite surprised the Bible sells. Perhaps it’s those lovely and colorful maps, which puzzles me because they aren’t even current.
But I like the Bible. Now that I no longer see it as a self-help book, it has infinitely more merit. It has soul, I guess you could say. As far as the writers in the Bible go, there are a few I like more than others. I like Paul the best because he said the hard stuff about women in ministry and homosexuality and you get to thinking he was pretty severe, and all of a sudden he starts getting vulnerable as though he is feeling lonely, needing to share personal stuff with somebody. When I come to these parts of his letters I feel he was writing late at night and was perhaps very tired, in some stranger’s home who was intimidated because they knew his reputation but had only just met him. If you had a guy in your home who was always getting beat up about the faith, thrown in prison and that sort of thing, it would make you feel intimidated and nervous about having him in your home; it would make you wonder exactly how committed you are. I’ll bet Paul didn’t care, though; he doesn’t seem like the type to judge people, but you know people were intimidated by him anyway.
He was terribly intelligent. For the first couple of days in a new town, Paul probably felt completely alone. I see him like this when he talks about how he wants to go home and be in heaven but stays on earth so he can write letters and preach. I see him writing by candlelight at a stranger’s table when he talks about how he has this thorn in his flesh and can’t get over it and prayed about it three times, but God said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you.” It’s writing like this that I like in a book. If a writer is going to sit down with a big important voice and try to get me motivated about something, I pretty much don’t want to read anymore because it makes me feel tired, as though life were just about getting a lot of things done. Paul never did this. He was terribly personal.
The books I like are the ones that get you feeling like you are with a person, hanging out with a person who is being quite vulnerable, telling you all sorts of stuff that is personal. And that’s the thing Paul did that makes me like him. The other thing is, the guy was passionate, like he actually believed this stuff was true, always going off about heaven and hell because he knew life has extremes. One minute he talked about how disgusting sin is and how it hurts God in His heart, and the next minute he said he would go to hell for people if he could, how he would die for them and go to hell if they would just trust Christ. It’s really hard to read that stuff because it gets you feeling guilty about not loving people very much, and then you feel very thankful for people like Paul because it means that if a person knows Christ, they become the sort of man who says difficult truths with his mouth and yet feels things with his heart that make him want to go around and die for people. It’s quite beautiful, really.
This passage was an excerpt from Searching for God Knows What.
Interesting that you should write about the Bible that you “no longer see it as a self-help book”. I have just recently been coming to the conclusion that it is primarily a self-help book – and that Jesus was very likely a “physician” of the mind, thousands of years ahead of his time. Repentance is an opportunity to reflect on our life up to that point, and without doing that we can never really “forget the things behind” as Paul encourages us to do in Philippians 3:13.
Rory,
Religion is self-help, Christianity is self sacrifice. If all we needed was someone to tell us or show us how to be better in and of ourselves Jesus would not of had to die. You are right when you say Jesus was like a physician of the mind; His sermon on the mount is said to be “the most boiled down guidelines for mental health” but they can never be lived out by one self in and of ones self. It is only through a continual dying to self so that Christ, through the Holy Spirit, can change us that we will see the change we desperately need. Respectfully submitted.
Nate,
Very, very well-said. =)
I agree Rory. To say that Jesus is anything other than Lord and Savior is to completely deny his death and resurrection. It is a way of saying that neither was necessary, because we can do it on our own. Problem is… we can’t do it on our own.
In addition, if we see it as a self-help book—a book on instruction—we see a book with contradictions, errors, and condemnation. But as a message, we can see past all that because the message is what makes it perfect; instruction is what makes it imperfect. God wants us to learn how He develops and grows people through a relational dynamic with each person mentioned in the Bible. I’ve come to love the Bible so much more because I stopped reading it as if it were instructing me something, instead, showing me something of utmost importance, the thing that really matters in all of this: Jesus.
Don,
Would you consider posting an excerpt from “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”?
I like all your books, but love that one in particular.
Best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving…
Funny you should post this today. Just yesterday, I read 1 Cornithians on Paul’s thoughts on marriage. I literally closed my Bible and said, “I don’t think I would liked Paul if he was alive today. He seems a little arrogant when talking about marriage and singlehood.”
Good to be reminded of what he endured for the Lord and his heart for people.
This is so visionary. Fighting the frog people? I loved reading your beginning, and you’re right Paul would be intimidating. He keeps on fighting for the truth no matter how many stones get flung his way.
Somehow, I imagine the lines being clearly drawn back then between Christian and non-Christian. So, in my mind, anyone that dared to associate with Paul was committed. He was an absolute radical for his day and would be today too.
Wait…did you write that excerpt? Or did someone else write it? Thanks for sharing.
Nikole,
That was from an excerpt from one of Don’s books. A really good book, actually.
He wrote it.
Way to redeem Paul for me. I have a history of struggling with him and the legitimacy of some of his social prescriptions. But when you put it like this, I can’t help but appreciate him. I wonder what passage you’re specifically referring to when you say, “he said he would go to hell for people if he could.” That’s an appealing sentiment in light of what Jesus did for his enemies.
I think it’s in Romans 9.
Paul is definitely one of my favorite writers. I love how he is right to the point. He does not worry about how others may perceive him, he just does what he knows God wants him to do. It is encouraging to me, gives me something to aim for. I loved all of your imagery in talking about where he was writing or how he was feeling. It brings a whole new light to this gospel writer.
“The books I like are the ones that get you feeling like you are with a person, hanging out with a person who is being quite vulnerable, telling you all sorts of stuff that is personal.” I think Romans 7 is one of my favorite passages because it captures the very tension of “I AM a follower of Christ who has staked much (all?! I hope!) on this, and yet I don’t always act/think/respond like one! What’s going on?!” All I can say is, me too.
My fav is Mary mother of God… is she the trump card btw?
I always have mixed feelings about Paul. On one hand, I rather dislike some of the things he has to say about women’s roles in the Church. (I don’t necessarily disagree with all his opinions about women in general, but I think he is a little too harsh- women should remain silent ALL the time? Are we somehow immune to Holy Spirit; are the words we receive somehow less important because of our sex? Perhaps appropriate culturally for his day, but hard to understand through a modern lens, I think.)
But, like you, I also have great respect for Paul. Sometimes it takes a few readings, but I think he was really trying to live out his faith; and willing to share on top of that. I liked a lot of the imagery you used in this too; it really made me re-imagine Paul as a person instead of a religious/historical figure.
Good post.
Krista, I agree with you.
Women and men did not sit together in church at the time. They were told not to speak in church because they were asking questions that were disruptive. They were told to go home and ask their husbands in private so that they would not disrupt the service. In today’s society, this no longer applies because women know just as much about the Bible as men.
I like what you did here, painting Paul as a real human being. People are complex. We’re dynamic. You captured that well in a way that takes someone who usually is pretty indifferent towards Paul to being someone who thinks, “Ouch. I judged, and I didn’t have a clue.”
It helps me to remember to extend grace towards people. I don’t know their whole story, and I don’t know the many hearts behind them. What I see is only a part, there’s a whole person there, and odds are I’m missing most of it because I’m fixated on one part.
And you’re right. It is quite beautiful. For Paul, and consequently for us all. Thanks Don.
I find Paul arrogant and culturally captive. His writing was notably reflective of cultural bias. He is a good example of God blessing us despite our weaknesses.
The “hard truths” that Paul wrote surrounding women’s positions in ministry are largely disputed around academic communities. Many interpretations of these verses take into account other verses and women in the Bible, such as the judge Deborah (Judges 4-5), the prophetess Huldah who gave instructions to the nation of Israel (2 Kings 22), and even in the New Testament we see examples of the Deaconess Pheobe (Romans 16:1), the Apostle Junia (often spelled “Junias” in some versions of the Bible whose translators do not agree that the name could be a woman’s, Romans 16:7), or the entire ministry led by Priscilla (Acts 18:26). Basically, although we see a few verses in which Paul appears to be silencing women in the church, we also see him affirming that we are neither ‘male nor female in Christ,’ and that ‘sons and daughters shall prophesy.’
In short, his words in some places conflict with his words in others.
There are many hypotheses in regards to why Paul would command women not to teach, but one includes the fact that many of the Pagan gods were actually goddesses. It is postulated by some academics that female leadership in a Christian church could have appeared pagan, so perhaps Paul was writing to avoid that assumption. That does not mean that it is still culturally relevant to restrict women from ministry positions. Since there is ‘neither male nor female in Christ,” women are spiritually equal to men and are therefore able to feel a call to ministry. The church should honor that call and bring a little more heaven to earth in doing so
Hey Donald, Couldn’t help but share this video with you after hearing about your love of Paul. It’s a 4 minute video that was made by my hubby and some other super creative friends for the kids at our church (and to share with whoever else wants to learn more about God’s story and Paul). Enjoy
http://vimeo.com/30378739
Agree on your conclusions. I said something similar once in our discipleship group and was relieved when other agreed. I like to think of Paul as a circa 2000 year ago version of Jack Bauer…except more forgiving…and no firearms. He was hard as nails though. The maps of his journeys always amaze me.
Paul has always been my favorite too. First of all, because he writes in an endearing rambling, ambling, roundabout way (like me). Also because he is incredibly smart, and equally committed. That’s why his conversion was so important. You can be so committed and passionate about the wrong thing. Yet when God decides to grab hold of you, all that intelligence, commitment, passion suddenly gets diverted, resulting in the most amazing stuff happening. Paul is such a deep apostle. In about every way possible. Maybe the deepest of apostles.
Paul is very facitating to me also. I have read a couple of biographies on him. What amazes me still is in his writing he tells of his encounters w/ Christ like on the Road to Damascus and I think he mentions others but he feels like he personally saw and met Christ and received a message from him to spread the gospels to the gentile etc. There is not doubt in his mind that he met the risen Lord. INthe early church he was a game changer for sure.
Also I like you comment about not a self help book. I agree with that…….I recently have started to read the Bible in a different way I read it silently but like I am reading it to another person. To a small child who I am reading a story to like a book. I am discovering the bible in such a different way. It is amazing stories…I am enjoying it so much more…
[...] has a favorite. Favorite color, favorite vacation spot, favorite James Bond. Donald Miller has a favorite apostle, and it’s Paul, rather unsurprisingly. Miller likes the vulnerability of Paul, and I can see [...]
Paul has always been my favorite Bible character because of his ability to “become all things to all men,” and his understanding of how unconditional love works in relationships. That is why he was successful in relating to Jews (the religious) and Greeks (the non-religious) alike.
“I like the Bible. Now that I no longer see it as a self-help book, it has infinitely more merit. It has soul, I guess you could say.” Ah, breath of fresh air. Thank you.
“The books I like are the ones that get you feeling like you are with a person, hanging out with a person who is being quite vulnerable, telling you all sorts of stuff that is personal.”
These are the kinds of books you write!
The Apostle Paul is one of my favorite apostles “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.”
Great reflection Don. I agree. Paul is inspired, but also a guy I could have a beer with. Our recent 10-week church series on Philippians underscored the grittiness of his speech — compared with the typical Christian stereotype most people are familiar with. Another cultural case in point, my wife published a 2011 book with Thomas Nelson (‘Surprised by Oxford’) that some Christian bookstores won’t carry because the free prologue quotes a Xn professor using the word BS (spelled out) to describe things not done in submission to God. The irony, of course, is that Paul uses the same or similar word in Phil 3:8, the “Aramaic Bible in Plain English” being my favorite: “I also consider all these things a loss for the majesty of the knowledge of Yeshua The Messiah, my Lord, him for whose sake I have lost everything, and I consider it all as a dung heap, that I may gain The Messiah.” I think more people would like the real Paul, if they read him.