Found by Love: Rahil Patel, the Hindu priest who met Jesus

Rahil Patel has taught me so much about Christianity that it is easy to overlook how much he taught me about Hinduism.

Who he is

Rahil Patel joined a Hindu priesthood when he was very young. Despite success and favor within the organization, he could not find the love he craved. All of his training makes this book a very good introduction to understanding our Hindu brothers, as well as the overwhelming joy that comes from knowing the one true God.

Who I would recommend this to

It is hard to think of someone who I wouldn’t recommend this book to. Rahil is an accomplished communicator with the receipts for his leadership and communication training. The hook in his first chapter has the glamour and suspense that may tempt the Ian Fleming estate to call their lawyers. His lived experience with meditation helped me understand a practice that has casually entered our professional world. He respects the tradition that he dedicated twenty years of his life to enough that he refuses to name it throughout the book. Stunning accomplishment for a first-time author.

Why I loved it

In Christian art there is a tendency to paint with dark colors and deep shadows the pre-conversion narratives, and switch to a light and airy palette after conversion. Christian alt Hollywood seems especially eager to deliver this fairytale-shaped PB&J to a public starving for juicy characters and delicious drama. Rahil delivers a story that only someone who has actually lived a life called by a living God could deliver. He delivers the small calls and questions of meaning and belonging throughout his life of service to his sect. He is at pains to let us know that after twenty years of service to one all-consuming God he has no desire to sign up for another. His conversion story, at a grand old church in London, is suitably glorious. But it is his life after it that made me want to buy this for all of my friends and some of my enemies.

As a globe-trotting nameless servant of a multimillion-dollar religious institution with no resume, Rahil’s life after his conversion looks more like a millennial-starring sitcom than a poster boy for the Christian life. His stress consumes the last few friendships he managed to salvage from his venerable service. He doesn’t know how he will eat. He doesn’t know where he will live. He is sad and angry and petulant.

I loved this. It has all the hallmarks of real life. Too many fairytale Christian narratives treat God like some kind of godmother given Amex Uber Black card and get out of jail free card. It’s not. It is so much more than that. A real relationship with the creator of the universe is about a lot more than the sum of any handful of things he created to be in his universe. I really do not want to spoil the interesting story bits, but I do want you to understand just how important it is to see someone whose story of growing relationship with God reflects more reliance on that God, rather than some kind of easily explainable material benefit.

Reservations

This section is here for the potential of other reviews. I will say that his experience of speaking in tongues made me feel uncomfortable. It is hard to say, because so much of the rest of his experience of Christianity rings true that it is making me question my unease.