I Wish I Was Don Miller

I’m re-reading one of my favorite books, Blue Like Jazz.  It’s nice to be able to pick a book that I want to read.  Now that I’m finally finishing up my Seminary classes I have a chance to read for pleasure.  It’s even nicer to have a chance to re-read something.  There is something about going back to a book you love and experiencing it all over again.  Especially if it’s a book that’s a bit older, you know with yellowed pages and that “old book” smell.  I think that books are the only things that smell better with age.  Nobody talks about “old car” smell as something they enjoy, but there is something to be said about the scent of an old book.  They need to find a way to get Kindles to smell like old books when you’re re-reading something, then that technology would be perfect.

If you haven’t read Blue Like Jazz for the first time, it’s really just a series of essays on Christianity and spirituality and encountering God in our modern world.  I love that kind of stuff because it’s written in a very casual, conversational style.  Like you’re sitting in a coffee shop with the author, Don Miller, just talking about how Christian spirituality has been made more real to you that day.  And as I was reading his work I began to compare it to my work.  I love writing this blog, I get on here as often as I can.  But the truth is, while we both have a similar style…I think I like what he does better.

So for a moment there I started to get jealous.  I started to wish that I could write like he does, that I could capture his style and make it mine.  I wished that I could write with the same dry wit and observational humor that he does.  And it was in those moments that I remembered that God made Don to be Don and He made me to be me.  He doesn’t want me to write like Don does, he made me to write like I do.  He already has a Don Miller.  He wants me to embrace the gifts, talents, and personality that he put in me and tell the story that I was meant to tell.  And He wants the same for you, too.