I'm finally getting around to finishing Donald Miller's "Blue Like Jazz." It is a light-read that contains some very deep and challenging, nay convicting, thoughts. It is a series of essays on life that flow well together and give you a sense that you and Don are sitting in a coffee shop conversing.
Miller is an artist, and a bit of a recluse. Throughout the book you have a lens into his spiritual and personal live as he interacts with Andrew the Protester, Tony the Beat Poet and the other colorful characters he encounters, mostly in Portland, Oregon.
A couple quick observations where Miller and I intersect.
1. My pride gets in the way of accepting grace. He spends some time discussing how pride can stop people from receiving God's grace and living in the power of His love. We think we earn our lumps, and we do. But God will forgive them, regardless of how dirty we are. We just can't stay dirty forever.
2. I tend to see people only in how they fit into my world. God has been working on me rather intensively in this area, but it is one I lapse into easily. I'm a little task-oriented and tend to move through people like Sherman through Georgia, or so I've been told. God is helping me see people as valuable whatever their lot in life, whatever their mistakes, and whatever foolishness they are engaged in. They all matter to Him. I know that in my head, but He is teaching that to my heart as well.
Read the book. It is well worth your time.
Shalom,
Roy
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1 comment:
thanks for your honest post. much appreciated! i think you may enjoy another book along the same lines called Jesus in the Margins by Rick McKinley. he is actually the pastor of miller's church in portland. blessings~
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