This year has been my year of biographies. I’ve been immersed in the lives of colonial Americans, Germans and Jews before and during World War II, Puritans, African Americans during and after the Civil War, a self-proclaimed “hillbilly,” and missionaries in Papua New Guinea, China, the Amazon River basin, and the Middle East. I’m busily taking notes (both mental and the paper-and-pen kind) on how these men and women raised their children, worked through incredible grief, endured through loneliness, overcame bitterness, and loved Jesus first. From those who have already lived full lives and died well, we can learn how to do the same. Live well that you may die well.
Although I have consciously been learning from all these biographies, I don’t think I really understood how important reading them was. Then, a couple of weeks ago, we had some friends over, including our pastor/elder, Dave. I asked about the balance of persistent faith and trust in God’s sovereign plan in prayer. His response surprised me. He said that a major way we learn how to pray is by reading biographies. How did these godly men and women come before God? What did they pray earnestly for? When they wrote to their friends, what was on their minds? (Letters are a treasure of the past that hardly exist in our age of emails and throw-it-away fast mentality.)
Thinking about Dave’s statement about learning to pray by reading biographies led me to do some research. I wasn’t surprised to find that John Piper had written about the same topic. He begins his essay with the words: “Hebrews 11 is a divine mandate to read Christian biography.” (Hebrews 11 is the “Hall of Faith,” in which the writer gives summaries of the biographies of Old Testament heroes such as Abraham, Sarah, Moses, and even Rahab, the converted harlot whose faith brought her into the Israelite fold and the lineage of Christ.)
Biographies Reveal the Good and the Bad
Not every example in the biographies I have read this year has been a good one. Daniel Smith, of Pilgrim of the Heavenly Way, saw incredible fruit to his gospel witness in China. But he hardly mentions his children, who were dropped off at boarding schools or left with nannies and probably spent much less time with their father than did the Chinese evangelists with whom he worked. We can learn from his faith and boldness in evangelism; we can also learn what not to do when we see how he ignored his primary ministry to his children. (While from the children’s notes at the end of the book, it seems that God kept them “in the fold,” I couldn’t help but think of the biblical example of Eli, who cared for the temple but let his sons fall into uncorrected profligacy.)
Sometimes we glorify famous Christians, putting them on a pedestal only God deserves. We need to better understand them so we can see that their greatness came from what God did, not what they did.
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Biographies Encourage Us to Reach for Something More Meaningful in Our Lives
We are an easily self-satisfied generation. It’s acceptable for us to move back in with our parents for extended seasons because our job wasn’t fulfilling us. Spending half our paycheck on manicures and new clothing is a norm among us young women. Among older women, there is often very little incentive to make new friends who don’t look or act like we do.
But then we read about people like Darlene Rose, who gave up everything to go to Papua New Guinea with her new husband to share the gospel with unreached tribes. She didn’t spend much time among the tribespeople. Instead, she was separated from her husband and imprisoned in a Japanese labor camp during World War II. When the war was over, she had no possessions and no husband. (He had died in the men’s camp.) But she didn’t stop there. She ended up spending many more years on the mission field, continuing to share the gospel with people who had never before heard it.
Or we read about Frances Havergal (download her biography for free HERE), who wrote the song, “Take My Life and Let It Be.” God used each verse she’d written to convict her. “Take my silver and my gold / Not a mite would I withhold,” she wrote in the song. And one day, she decided that meant she should donate her collection of lovely jewelry to the Church Missionary Society.
“The Lord has shown me another little step,” she wrote to a friend, “and of course I have taken it with extreme delight.” (page 253)
Biographies Open Our Eyes to Other Points of View
I think it’s easiest for us to read about people we already admire or with whom we know we agree. And Christian biographies would seem to fit that category for those of us who also love God. But no Christian is exactly like another. Many great Christians come from walks of life very different from our own. So each time we read biographies even of people we thought we understood, we will learn something new.
Hate Confederates? Consider reading a biography of Robert E. Lee. On the other hand, if you’re not concerned about the legacy slavery left in our country (and still call the Civil War “The War of Northern Aggression”), it might be time to read some of Francis Grimké’s thoughts. Grimké was a former slave who became a Presbyterian minister. (Can you tell I live in the South?) 🙂
Hate Muslims? Read about Muslim culture from the perspective of someone who once lived in it, such as in Bilquis Sheikh’s I Dared to Call Him Father.
Biographies Challenge Us and Encourage Us in the Faith
How can we be content with our current status when we read the Resolutions that Jonathan Edwards wrote for himself as a young man? Here are a few of them:
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…I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence….[I will] do whatever I think to be my duty…
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Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.
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Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
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Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.
How can we be satisfied with our level of sanctification when we read Amy Carmichael’s little book, If? 
If I myself dominate myself, if my thoughts revolve round myself; if I am so occupied with myself I rarely have “a heart at leisure from itself,” then I know nothing of Calvary love.
IF, the moment I am conscious of the shadow of self crossing my threshold, I do not shut the door, and in the power of Him who works in us to will and to do, keep that door shut, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
Challenging words like these convict us, newly wake us up to living the way we wanted to when we first got saved. Don’t ever be satisfied with the status quo, they say. Live each day to the fullest and for Christ.
Don’t Forget the Past!
When we neglect the stories of the past, we not only repeat the mistakes of the past, but we also fall short of the greatness of the past.
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How can I learn to pray?
First, by reading God’s Word. But also by reading about people like Rees Howells, David Brainerd, and others who valued prayer above every distraction the world could offer.
Which biographies have changed your life the most?
We’d love to hear from you in the comments! (By the way, my answer to that question is Elisabeth Elliot’s A Chance to Die, her biography of Amy Carmichael.) 🙂
The Hiding Place (Corrie ten Boom)!