Barbara Brown Taylor

Signed copy and note from Barbara Brown Taylor! I had never written to an author before but I did in this case because Holy Envy seemed so significant to me. BBT’s response was incredibly kind and much more than I expected.

I wrote about Holy Envy in a previous blog. This book is the most recent to be added to my significant list. I remember many, many years ago, when we had moved recently to San Jose, pre-children, when we had another young couple over for dinner. I think they, or maybe at least one of them, had also gone to Calvin. The wife, whose name I don’t even remember, said something about how she did not like the exclusiveness of Christianity—that people could only get to God via Christianity. I remember feeling kind of shocked back then. It seemed so clear that Christ, therefore Christianity, is the only way. That seemed such a given. And now, all these years later, I feel like I’m in complete agreement with her.

Lots of things contributed to that. One of them was working with a Hindu colleague for around 15 years. He was very curious about my Christian faith and asked a lot of questions. He liked to find the many similarities he saw with Hinduism. One time he said to me, “Are you the kind of Christian who thinks I will be in hell when I die because I am not a Christian?” I had not really thought about it specifically, and in that moment, I wasn’t completely sure what I thought. But without really considering it, I said, “I don’t know the mind of God. I don’t know what will happen when we die. But I can’t imagine heaven without you in it.”

I think when I said that I could not imagine heaven without my colleague in it, at that moment my main concern was not to hurt my friend’s feelings. But as I thought about it more, I realized that it was true and really, there was more to it. As BBT wrote in Holy Envy, “No one owns God,” and “Because there is only one of me, I can only walk one way at a time, but that does not prevent me from believing that other people might be walking their ways with equal devotion and good will.” (* Page 119) I am happy and relieved that she and others I respect trust that “Jesus is the Way that embraces all ways,” and that his way is wide enough to encompass all ways.

For now, I try to remember my “job.” BBT says, “In every circumstance, regardless of the outcome, the main thing Jesus has asked me to do is to love God and my neighbor as religiously as I love myself. The minute I have that handled, I will ask for my next assignment. For now, my hands are full.” ( * Page 119)