to own a dragon

I’d like to recommend a tremendous book by a wonderful author—To Own a Dragon, written by Donald Miller.

I grew up without a father—a circumstance that, like all adversities, had both bad and good effects on my life.

I’ll spare you the whiny litany of bad effects and skip right to the great GOOD that came out of my fatherless childhood: God is my father. I know this like I know the sound of my own children’s voices. And it was the absence of an earthly dad that allowed me to fully embrace my heavenly Father’s perfect love, affection, discipline, and presence.

To Own a Dragon’s author, Donald Miller, was also fatherless. And Miller’s willingness to rip himself open and share the impact of that circumstance on his life makes for compelling and spiritually convicting reading.

The writing is poetic, honest, and moving. And, in places, laugh-out-loud funny. Miller’s conversation about fathers is not a bleak or hopeless rant. Rather, it shows how God longs to father us and how men of faith can fill in some of the blanks for those who lack the positive influence of a daddy.

Here is one of my favorite passages:

“There is something profoundly humbling about knowing God. I’m not talking about the trinket God or the genie-in-a-lamp God, I mean the God who invented the tree in my front yard, the beauty of my sweetheart, the taste of a blueberry, the violence of a river at flood. I think there are a lot of religious trends that would have us controlling God, telling us that if we do this and that and another, God will jump through our hoops like a monkey. But this other God, this real God, is awesome and strong, all-encompassing and passionate, and for reasons I will never understand, He wants to father us.”

This book is written from a male perspective, but it is of great value to all…male, female, fathers, mothers, the childless, single parents, and even those with loving, Godly dads in their lives. It is starkly honest and doesn’t always read like a sanitized, shiny Christian book (i.e., it can be surprisingly blunt and human in places). But if you appreciate honesty and real life in your faith reading, check it out.

And don’t forget to give thanks to God, our perfect Father.

Lisa

P.S. What are you reading right now?