I’ve been reading widely lately, enjoying the poetry of Rumi and Hafiz; it’s amazing how looking at shared life experiences from the life of another can help re-focus your lenses in powerful new ways. I’m experiencing this same phenomenon with a contemporary writer, Samir Selmanovic, and his provocative book It’s Really All About God. Samir has walked in many shoes across his life. Ethnically he is Croatian. In faith, he is a Christian – a Seventh-Day Adventist pastor to be exact. But these labels don’t tell the whole story; there is more: At different times in his life, he has also been Muslim, and Atheist – and with strong affinities for Judaism – all lived out, these days, in the melting pot of New York City (see his work at Faith House Manhattan). In the crucible of these different identities he’s been able to hold all identity lightly and focus on what unites rather than divides us – what I’ve come to call meeting at the intersection of humility and mystery. Samir says it differently than I do, and I celebrate this difference as I’m reading his story.

As my friend Mike Morrell recently said on his blog regarding It’s Really All About God,

Do yourself a favor and read it. If you’re too cheap to immediately spring for a copy merely on my recommendation, listen to this recent talk he gave. And hear him read excerpts from his book. But then buy it! You’ll be glad you did.

Here’s Samir in his own words:

What are you reading right now that’s giving you life?

Hi everyone; I just wanted to share with the Post-Christian Blog community that my family and I are in Florida right now. My brother-in-law, Steve Bormann, has died.  He was 57.

Death gives us a chance to reflect on the meaning and beauty of life, and relationships. Today if you have a moment, I’d encourage you to listen to When Death Gets Personal, by my new friend Michael Dowd and his wife Connie. Michael is dealing with potentially life-threatening cancer.