| Thanks, Keith Miller! |
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Monday, July 20, 2009 When I was a college student, Keith Miller spoke at Baylor University, and what he said that day set me on a l journey that has been rich and meaningful, challenging and difficult, liberating and empowering. As soon as it was released I bought his book, The Taste of New Wine, and then I read everything else he wrote. This past Saturday, Eileen Flynn wrote about him in the Austin American-Statesman. If you go to this link, http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/faith/2009/07/18/0718flynn.html, you can read what she wrote. In her opening paragraph, Ms. Flynn expresses wonder that in seven years on the religious beat in Austin, she's missed knowing Keith Miller. The good news is that she did meet him. She did write about him, and she did get it about who he is and how it is that he has been such a powerful, positive role model, friend and mentor to so many of us through the decades. It was just last week when someone asked me how it was that I started down the particular path of my adult life and I quickly answered, "It started with Keith Miller." In fact, I'd just written about Keith's influence from those college days in the book I'm working on now. (I pay close attention to synchronicities like this; they are often significant sign-posts in daily life.) I've had incredible teachers and mentors in my lifetime, but it was Keith who beamed a light down the path of integrating psychology and spiritualilty. Keith helped me understand the importance and the difficulty of radical honesty. He evoked a hunger for healing in me; he activated a curiosity about how human beings can become more fully human and fully alive. There have been others along the way, but it was Keith who introduced me to the idea that faith is more than a Sunday morning event; faith is lived out in the everyday, ordinary and sometimes raw and messy places of life. Keith poked holes in pious religiosity that doesn't allow for human realities, natural feelings and real life. For those of us who followed him onto the edge of adventure, he helped us let go of the false separation between the sacred and the secular. Keith inspired us to move beyond platitudes and bromides to ask and seek and knock on the closed doors of life's puzzles He showed us that becoming whole never happens when you slap simplistic religious slogans on deep wounds, but that telling the truth about those wounds opens the possibility of deep healing in those dark, hidden places where you're too scared to go by yourself. Keith Miller is earthy and honest, authentic and open about his own struggles and challenges, and that transparency and vulnerability have often made other people uncomfortable. I may have been uncomfortable with what Keith challenged us to do, but he has activated my courage to face my own imperfections and defects. He is full of life and love and laughter, and his childlike curiosity and wonder are contagious. Keith's joy of life sparks life in those who have heard him speak, read his books, been his friend and followed his passion for authenticity. In recent years I've had rare and precious opportunities to spend time with Keith and Andrea, his wife, also a reknowned author and a wonderful human being and friend. Both of them are generous and welcoming, and their passion for life and their sense of presence enfold others in a warm, nurturing embrace that must be a little bit like God's. The fact is that everything I've written --books, columns, curriculum -- and how I teach carries the influence of Keith Miller. What am I saying? How I live my life is a direct result of the teaching and writing of Keith Miller! Four years ago, he was in the audience at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, when I spoke at a Lenten service It scared me to speak publicly in front of this giant, but he couldn't have been more gracious. Once again, Keith gave me courage. Thank you, Keith Miller. And thank you, Eileen Flynn, for writing about a giant among us. Like people who live near the Grand Canyon and never see it, all of us are prone to miss the treasures that are close to us. It's never too late to wake up to the persons who are God's stand-ins in helping us live the life we're intended to live. Who are your mentors? Who gave you just what you needed to start you on your journey? Who is it that came along at precisely the right time for you? And who needs your encouragement, your mentoring, your friendship? Grace to you -- Jeanie
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Comments (2)
Passing it on...
written by Renae C, July 20, 2009
Whether you know it or not, you fill the same shoes for others that Keith filled for you. If how you live your life is a direct result of Keith's life, he must have been a very good teacher - and now, down the path a little way - you have become that teacher figure in the lives of others. Kudos for life's lessons well learned. I hope I am taking the first steps in handing down the legacy.
... written by Hazel Thomas, July 25, 2009
I remember the day well when I learned of the connection between psychology and theology. I was in Ray Higgins Ethics class at SWBTS. He had many ethics cases based on medical situations and then one day he brought information to the class about CPE - chaplain residency. I went home excited and overjoyed because I *finally* knew the path God had for me. I wouldn't be Father Mulcahey from MASH but I would be a chaplain, none the less. I spoke on this same thing Thursday to the leadership at work. My hope is to inspire them to reconnect to what drives them so they can share that with those they lead.
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