Miller Light

I’m listening to a sermon by Donald Miller that a new friend of mine sent to me and it is a great message. Miller is the author of "Blue Like Jazz" and "Searching for God Knows What".  Miller is such a great communicator and makes you feel like you are good buddies sitting around over coffee chatting about God, life, faith, religion, movies, music, vintage SNL skits.  It’s Miller Light – where Miller sheds light on things.

His perspectives on scripture and his relationship with God are so authentic and real.  I think his words resonate with so many of us and he has had the courage to say it out loud.  I wonder why I don’t.  Why does it require courage? Part of it is that I don’t want to hurt or trouble people or make them uncomfortable. That tough love is hard for me.  I believe in it completely but it is very, very difficult for me. But the bigger issue is that I don’t want to be wrong.  I want to have it figured out before I say it out loud.  The very ironic thing about it is that I think that our journey with God rarely resolves (like jazz music as Miller relates) and I like that.  It makes me feel safe.  It makes God more believable to me.  When it all is neat and tidy, I worry and I doubt.  Because I really don’t think it can be neat and tidy.  But I want to be absolutely right about there not being very many right answers before I state that out loud.  Are you getting that?  Do you see how insane that line of thinking is? 

God is bigger than so many things that we stop short on.  We get short-sighted and completely miss so much of what is beautiful and what is important.  I do not want to spend my life perpetuating things that don’t matter; working to bolster traditions that distract; hiding thoughts that challenge what I’ve done.

We all struggle to leave sight of the shore.  New discoveries can  never be made if we aren’t willing to take off on a new adventure of discovery.