korean forward

Published by bryan | Filed under journal entries

Both Blue Like Jazz and Searching for God Knows What have now been translated into many languages. Recently, Searching for God Knows What was translated into Korean. The publishers in Korea asked me to write a foreword for the book introducing it’s concepts to a Korean audience. It’s been years since I wrote the book, but I thought I would share the new (Korean) foreword with you. Hope your holliday season is off to a great start.

Foreword for the Korean edition of Searching for God Know’s What…

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I’m grateful this book is now being translated into Korean. Though you are an ocean apart and we speak different languages and have different cultural traditions, the manifestations of our languages and cultures point, in many ways, toward a universal spiritual need. We see this need expressed in nearly every conversation we have, whether we are buying vegetables at the market or having an intimate dialogue with our spouse. That need, I believe, is the need to be loved, wanted, accepted, valued and cared for. In short, we want to know that we matter. I don’t think there are many who would disagree that the desire for this fulfillment crosses all cultures and is evident in nearly every human being. Because we are born with this desire, we come to think of it as normal, human, and yet we’ve little explanation as to why it exists. I believe if we probe into this question we find answers to more than just this question, but many of life’s more pressing questions, questions such as Why am I here? Why do I want the things I want? Where can I find ultimate fulfillment? Do I matter?

Each culture has certain presuppositions about Christianity. For some, it can be summed up as a western religion, closely associated with democracy or free-market dynamics. If Christianity were to be boiled down to a single person, many would feel the personality of this individual would be judgmental, inconsiderate and unkind. But we must remember that those who desire power have always claimed that God was on their side, and they always will. But when we look closer at Christianity, we see that God is entirely independent of worldly agendas. The God of the Bible, in fact, is a loving God, a God who desires intimacy. In fact, this God is a God who cares more about meeting the emotional needs of people than he does about supporting their political or economic agendas.

The great question is, then, does Christianity address and explain the human condition? Does Christianity explain why we want people to like us, why we want to be loved, why we fear being rejected, why we hide our true selves from each other in an attempt to impress those around us? In summary, does Christianity explain the universal human language, the language that all of us are speaking to each other, the language that lies beneath the words and beneath the culture? I believe it does, and if you will forgive the cultural chasm separating me from you, I would like to explain exactly how.

My hope in doing this is that you would come into relationship with God. I believe that you can know God, that God can be real in your life. I believe the God of the Bible wants to meet the deep needs of your life, and that if we call out to Him we can know Him and have a relationship with Him.

Thank you so much for picking up this book. It means a great deal to me that you and I could have a conversation about the things in life that truly matter the most. All of the love and blessings of God to you on this journey.

Donald Miller
Portland, Oregon, USA