Memphis artist Lisa Perdue recently created jewelry messaged with the words, “Live a Better Story.” Inspired by Donald Miller’s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Lisa’s jewelry urges us to see our lives as a story. If we don’t like the tale we are living, we should find a better one and let it reshape our experience.
That, in a nutshell, is also the advice of James Bryan Smith in his trilogy A Good and Beautiful God, A Good and Beautiful Life, and A Good and Beautiful Community. Smith’s conviction is that many people have accepted the wrong narratives about God (book one), character (book two), and Christian community (book three). For example, in book one Smith demonstrates how people are often influenced by stories about God such as “God is angry,” or “God’s favor must be earned,” or “We have to work our way to God.” These false storylines create an unhealthy spirituality. Jesus’, however, provides true and genuine narratives about God. For instance, in the Gospels Jesus reveals that God is good (not angry), God is generous (we don’t have to earn his favor), and that God works his way to us (not vice versa). Similarly, in book two Smith illustrates how people embrace bogus ideas about character which need to be replaced with more proper ideas drawn from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Finally, in book three Smith delves into spurious tales people accept regarding the church/ Christian community. He then presents contrasting true narratives about community drawn from Scripture.
By themselves, Smith’s pairs of false and true narratives make the series worth reading. They provide an opportunity for us to consider the often hidden and unhealthy stories which drive our spirituality, our moral and ethical lives, and our approach toward Christian community. The ultimate value of the series, however, lies in the way Smith provides a bridge between each false narrative and its alternative true narrative. Without this link, Smith’s trilogy would become just another prophetic word about the failings of contemporary Christianity in North America. The problem with many such books is they provide thoughtful descriptions of the disease but offer few practical prescriptions for a cure. It is one thing to say “Live a better story.” It is quite another to show how. Thankfully, Smith does both. Each chapter which describes a false and true narrative about spirituality, character, or community is followed by a chapter which prescribes a specific spiritual discipline which enables us to live that better story.
Thus after a chapter in which Smith calls us to move from a plotline of “God is angry” to a plotline of “God is good,” he offers a brief chapter describing what he calls a “soul-training exercise” that enables the move: awareness of creation. Each day as we notice one beautiful and good thing in creation (e.g., a sunrise, a flower, etc.) we allow that created thing to remind us of our good and beautiful Creator. This exercise enables us to slowly and steadily move from the unhealthy narrative focused on an angry God to the healthier narrative focused on a good God. The three books offer similar soul-training exercises as the pathways to more fruitful life-stories.
If you are looking for a practical way to take some positive steps forward in spirituality, character, or community, few will assist you in as realistic, sensible and deeply spiritual a way as does Smith. Indeed, it would be difficult to read and implement the trilogy and not find yourself genuinely living a better story.
James Bryan Smith
The Good and Beautiful God
IVP Books, 2010
ISBN-10: 0830835318
232 Pages
James Bryan Smith
The Good and Beautiful Life
IVP Books, 2009
ISBN-10: 0830835326
264 Pages
James Bryan Smith
The Good and Beautiful Community
IVP Books, 2010
ISBN-10: 0830835334
240 Pages
