Steven James. Story. Revell, 2006.

Readers, especially those who were around in the seventies, might recall a few books written by Calvin Miller, notably The Singer. They were popular, creative retellings of the Gospel and related stories. They were written as epic poems.

Story resonates like those. It is very creative, clever, and at the same time causing the reader to pause and consider. I already believe I will re-read this book soon. It is that good.

This is a combination of stories and poems and personal narratives that present the Gospel in a refreshing way.

One brief poem says:

i told my friend, “only children get excited over watching a butterfly.”
but then he turned to me and said,
“so does
God.” (19)

James tells stories from his own life, from things he has read, from the Bible. Some he renders in poetry. Each chapter is a kind of meditation. This book could be treated as a devotional, but it is more than that. It resembles a memoir, but it is something else.

It is a story. It is a tale told by a philosopher and storyteller, a singer of tales, if you will. And yet the story is true.

Nietzsche was partly right—not that “God is dead,” but he was. God died on Skull Hill. And for three hours on a Friday, even the sun hid its face. (157)

I had a friend who had served in Vietnam. He was one of those men described by Lan Cao and Robert Olen Butler who learned Vietnamese and really loved the Vietnamese people. He was a regular at a Vietnamese restaurant when he returned to the United States.

When he is was in Vietnam he once had a conversation with a Vietnamese fisherman. Like a majority of Vietnamese, this man was Buddhist, but since about ten percent of the population then was Christian (mostly Catholic from the French influence), he was acquainted with Christianity. The man said to him, “I do not understand Christianity. Why would a God want to become a man?”

Ah! That is the key to the Gospel!

But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness. (I Corinthians 1:23)

The Greeks were like the Buddhists, believers in multiple gods. They had stories about men like Hercules becoming gods, but why would a god want to become a weak mortal?

The answer is truly well known, if not always accepted. God is love (I John 4:8), and, because of that character trait:

God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Steven James’ Story is ultimately God’s story. It is well worth reading. It is inspired.