How to Read a Biography

Chris Armstrong on "How to Read a Biography" from a larger article advocating a return to the declining practice of reading biographies of great Christians.

As noted above, biographies do not automatically lead to virtue, and can in fact move us in the reverse direction. So how do we read them rightly? With the same spirit of humility and openness that becomes us when we meet people face to face.

Note what happens when you read biography from a stance of humility: You do not become discouraged upon learning that the subject has accomplished astounding things. Sure, Wesley was a ministry whirlwind. But he was gifted in a particular way, for his own time and for God's own purposes. Your time and place are different; God, therefore, has gifted you differently.

Also, you are not inclined to envy Wesley, because humility has taught you, as it did Paul, to be content in whatever situation you face. Finally, you remember that Wesley had his flaws and difficulties: he tended to be autocratic, for example, and did not have a happy marriage. You wisely decide that you will not jump to desire others' gifts, since every strength comes with its own obverse weakness, and since with great responsibility, so often, comes great difficulty.

And look at what happens if you read with spiritual openness: When you discover the subject's struggles and character flaws, you are reminded that, no matter how many flaws and faults you see in your own makeup, you too can be changed by grace and used for greatness in the kingdom. The kind of life you live is not the only kind. There is a luminous possibility for you, something beyond life as usual.

Even better, you don't have to be pure as the driven snow to attain this life. Your current condition, with its all-too-obvious blemishes, will not prevent our loving God from moving you deeper and higher in his purposes. Since "nothing is too difficult for him"—he makes camels go through needles and rich men enter the kingdom of heaven—you can be used by God in wonderful ways, even in ways as exciting as some of the ones you are reading about.