Writing the Christian life: The essence of spiritual memoir

A sparrow flutters through the window into a banquet hall filled with light, music, and feasting. Then, just as quickly, the bird flies away again into the darkness. The flight of the bird is our life—brief, dramatic, and framed by two immense darknesses. Where has it come from? From what primordial past? Where is it going? Into what unknowable future?

The ancient parable suggests a religious dimension to the telling of any life. It begins in mystery and ends in faith. So compelling is the mystery that it must be puzzled over and prayed out and finally written down.

Several years ago I gathered with pastors from around our state to read spiritual autobiographies and memoirs. We met one full day a month for an entire year, reading and reflecting on “the life of faith.” We were all hungry for the genre. Our enthusiasm corresponded to the surging popularity of memoir not merely in bookstores or on Amazon but in life-writing clubs, blogs, and self-published books in what the New York Times has called “the Age of Memoir.”