Blue Like Jazz

Okay, so I’ve heard about this book for several years now, always hearing how awesome it is and after having bought it months ago, I finally set my mind to getting it read. And I’m SO glad I did.

I think every non-believer should read this book, as well as anyone who leads in the Christian community.

Donald Miller is not what most would consider your run-of-the-mill conventional Christian writer. He steps outside of the box. And brings you with him. And in doing so, he humbles himself, steps on your toes and brings you off your judgment seat as well – leaving it open for the only One worthy to hold such a place.

Miller is quick not to defend the term Christianity, as by now the term as lost all absolute definition. By this point, Miller says “Stop ten people on the street and ask them what they think of when they hear the word Christianity, and they will give you ten different answers.” He continues ”I would rather talk about Jesus and how I came to believe that Jesus exists and that he likes me.”

And it really can be just that simple. And should be.

Nobody knows for sure what Jesus wrote in the sand in John 8, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t drawing a line in it.

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And just so you know it’s also recommended for its entertainment qualities, I’ll just share the beginning of Chapter 11. I hope that in doing so I don’t ruin it for anyone who’s not already read the book and plans to, but considering the fact that this page makes me laugh out loud every time I read it, I think you’ll still enjoy it, too when you get to it.

“When I was in Sunday School as a kid, my teacher put a big poster on the wall that was shaped in a circle like a target. She had us write names of people we knew who weren’t Christians on little pieces of paper, and she pinned the names to the outer circle of the target. She said our goal, by the end of the year, was to move those names from the outer ring of the circle, which represented their distance from knowing Jesus, to the inner ring, which represented them having come into a relationship with Jesus. I thought the strategy was beautiful because it gave us a goal, a visual.

I didn’t know any people who weren’t Christians, but I was a child with a fertile imagination so I made up some names; Thad Thatcher was one and William Wonka was another. My teacher didn’t believe me which I took as an insult, but nonetheless, the class was excited the very next week when both Thad and William had become Christians in a dramatic conversion experience that included the dismantling of a large satanic cult and underground drug ring. There was also levitation involved.

Even though they didn’t exist, Thad and William were the only people to become Christians all year. Nobody else I knew became a Christian for a very long time, mostly because I didn’t tell anybody about Jesus except when I was drunk at a party, and that was only because so many of my reservations were down, and even then nobody understood me because I was either crying or slurring my words.”

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Go get this book. You won’t be sorry.