Blue Like Jazz

My pastor mentioned this book in a sermon a while ago. I am always interested in what people are reading especially my pastors so I made a point to get the book. It sat on my shelf for a while before I could get to it. I have been spending some time with Bruce Ware studying the Trinity.

Anyway, I have found this little book to be both entertaining and challenging. What strikes me is Don Miller's straightforward, honest, authentic telling of his life, faith and work. There's no pretense in this man's writing. He challenges me in a similar way and on a different level as N.T. Wright. It is a sort of breaking of the mold that has formed my Christian character. This has been nagging at me for some time, this disconnect between faith and life. What I mean is, if I really believe the gospel is true, why do I find it so hard to live like it? Why am I so self-absorbed? Why is it such drudgery to give myself over to others? I guess this is also why I find Gordon Fee to be so compelling when he writes about biblical interpretation. Somewhere deep inside I am groaning over this problem. It won't go away and I can't seem to make it go away. Moving in and out of the community of faith is like living in two worlds and it just doesn't resonate with me anymore. It probably never did but it just didn't bother me to the degree it does now. I want to be swept away with a mad love for Christ. My mind can comprehend but I just can't feel it like I should.

I was listening to a sermon by Tim Keller and Tim says that his job as a preacher of the gospel is like coins dropping in a pop machine in his apartment building. When he puts the coins in, the drop but not all the way. He has to smack the side of the machine to get them to drop. That's what he does. We hear the gospel and the coins do enter the machine but getting them to drop is more daunting.

Anyway, if you feel the way I do, you might want to give this book a go. If you're like me, you won't agree with Don on some things but if you track with the book you might find that, in the end, you are more comfortable with differences. You might find that someone else is traveling the path your on and understands.