The One With Blue Like Jazz

I don’t know if you have read Blue Like Jazz By Donald Miller, but I would highly recommend it if you haven’t. I haven’t read the full book yet, but the 2 random chapters I have read where quite insightful. They are actually making it into a movie; we will see how that goes.
For now, I am gonna pull some quotes that have struck me.

Ch. 2 pg. 13
“I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man’s mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from capturing God.”

--This is so true! I had not realized it until I read this. I couldn’t even tell you how many times I have gone to church and just do the routine. Sing, greet, sit, stand, sit, stand, sit, listen and/or try not to fall asleep, repeat when necessary, etc. I recite a prayer before I eat, do I know what words I am really saying? I pray before bed. This is ridiculous, instead of focusing on God, I have fallen into this routine and don’t see Him there anymore. The devil is tricky, but I have Christ on my side so I will win. I will not let him blind me anymore.

Ch. 2 pg. 14
“If you don’t love somebody, it gets annoying when they tell you what to do or what to feel. When you love them you get pleasure from their pleasure, and it makes it easy to serve. I didn’t love God because I didn’t know God.”

--I have found that people, even for myself, have a hard time listening to God’s commands and get frustrated when Christians tell them yes to this and no to that and when they ask why? The answer is because God says this or God says that. But now it makes so much more sense to me. People have a hard time listening/following Him because they haven’t really gotten to know God and therefore haven’t fallen in love with Him. I think this is true for myself. Until the past couple of years, my relationship with Him was not real. It was ‘I believe in you’ but I never took the time to understand Him, get to know Him, or allow myself to truly love Him. I think this is something I am still working on. It doesn’t happen over night but is a process; although I am getting there. There are still days when I want to go against Him because of my free will but the more I fall in love with Him, the less I desire to do the opposite of what He says. I am not saying that I will fall madly in love with Him and never go against Him, because I am human this cannot happen. I will never fully understand what it means to fully, completely, and passionately love Him until I am in His presence because I am disconnected from Him and cannot understand Him.

Ch. 11 pg. 105
“ I don’t know if we really like pop-culture icons, follow them, buy into them because we resonate with what they believe or whether we buy into them because we think they are cool.”
“Who cares what I believe about life, I only care that I am cool.”

--It’s so easy to get caught up in modern day America where we follow people and have heroes for no reason. We want to be associated with them and we want to be the coolest person on the block. I know I struggle with this. It is so easy to fall into this trap. I want to have modern clothes, I want to fit into the stereotype of what defines cool. And when someone doesn’t fit into our definition of cool, we ridicule him or her and call them weird. We look down upon them instead of loving them and praising them for having the bravery to stand out. America tells us to be an individual and to stand out, but as soon as they do, they get mocked. Living for Christ can be scary because it makes you stand out but if you’re truly passionate about Him, you will have the strength to be apart from what society tells us is cool. Which is something I am still working on.

Ch. 11 pg. 106-107
“Satan wants us to believe in meaningless things for meaningless reasons. Can you imagine if Christians actually believed that God was trying to rescue us from the pit our own self-addiction? Can you imagine? … If we believed the right things, the true things, there wouldn’t be very many problems on earth.”

--I agree. If we understood what was truth and what were lies and instead of getting mixed up in believing falsehoods, we would have a grasp on this planet and on the wickedness of Satan and have an easier time defeating Him. But the devil is a trickster and wants to deceive you away from Christ.

Ch. 11 pg. 107
“Even our beliefs have become trend statements. We don’t even believe things because we believe them anymore. We only believe things because they are cool things to believe.”

-- I find this more true now than ever. With this past election, I would ask people why they are voting for Obama. I always got the same answer: Because it’s time for change. Well, duh! Any new president would be change. I would ask them to elaborate and they would a little but they skimmed the surface and didn’t know much else. He was the popular man to vote for and he has many followers who don’t even know much more about him than the basics. They couldn’t tell me anything about his policies and I got the feeling people got caught up in the “coolness” of his figure. I am not saying I don’t do this. I am by all means guilty of this. I went to church my whole life and believed in God and Jesus’ death because it was the thing to believe in church and in my family. It was not until I did my own soul searching did I find an actual, true belief in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Ch. 11 pg. 107
“The problem with Christian belief – I mean real Christian belief, the belief that there is a God and a devil and a heaven and a hell- is that it is not a fashionable thing to believe.”

--I cannot tell you the number of times I have run across people who think that as long as they are a “good” person then they will go to heaven. But here is my question, why should you get to go to everlasting paradise when you did not live for Jesus and still sinned. Sure, you didn’t murder anyone and you helped the poor, but what did you do for God? Why should he allow you in heaven when you didn’t obey or worship Him on earth? He doesn’t need YOU, you NEED Him. He is perfectly fine without you, but he still loves you and desires you and has mercy on you. In fact, He sent His son to die for you and all you have to do is believe in your heart and confess with your mouth and live for Him. Here is my problem, I am selfish and want to live my way. It’s not always easy living for Him, but it is worth it because in the end I will be rewarded.

Ch. 11 pg. 110
“All great Christian leaders are simple thinkers…when Jesus says feed the poor, He means you should do this directly…what I believe is not what I say I believe, what I believe is what I do.”

--I think these phrases have said it perfectly. Christianity should not be made into something elaborate or technical but is simple. Act out what you believe, show it. And do as He says without adding your own spin to it.

Ch. 11 pg. 111
“Living for something is the hard thing. Living for something extends beyond fashion, glory, or recognition. We live for what we believe.”

--I say I am a Christian and I believe in the Bible, but do I show it? Do I actually live it out? Or do I just say I believe and live a totally separate lifestyle? It is easy. There are no buts, so just do it.



I could probably quote the entire book because it is so good, well the 2 chapters I have read. I learned a lot and I pray you can look at these quotes and understand what they mean and the importance they talk about and also impact you as it did me.