Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Don Miller on Grace


"I was a Fundamentalist Christian once. It lasted a summer. I was in that same phase of trying to discipline myself to "behave" as if I loved light and not "behave" as if I loved darkness. I used to get really ticked about preachers who talked too much about grace, because they tempted me to not be disciplined. I figured what people needed was a kickin the butt, and if I failed at godliness it was because those around me weren't trying hard enough. I believed if word got out about grace, the whle church was going to turn into a brothel. I was a jerk, I think... We Dream of Christ's love for His bride reading like
Romeo
and Juliet; two equals enflamed in liberal love.














I think it is more like Lucentio's pursuit of Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew. That is, the groom endearing the belligerent bride with kindness, patience, and love. Our "behavior" will not be changed long with self-discipline, but fall in love and a human will accomplish what he never thought possible. The laziest of men will swim the English channel to win his woman...By accepting God's love for us, we fall in love with HIm, and only then do we have the fuel we need to obey. In exchange for our humility and willengness to accept the charity of God, we are given a kindgom. And a beggar's kingdom is better than a proud man's delusion."


Miller, Don. Blue Like Jazz Pg. 79 and 86

2 comments:

betty said...

oh nat-an...that is my favorite book...and i find it great how you refer to donald millar as don...like you two are tight...if he didn't want ani difranco I'd be all over him...let me tell you...

officehourthoughts said...

I'm really thinking about driving down to Portland and starting to stalk him... I can't think of anything I would like to do more than sit on his roof and smoke a pipe with him, and just listen to him talk... yup, sounds like the road trip of a lifetime.