“I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.
After that I liked jazz music.
Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.
I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve. But that was before any of this happened.”
~ Author’s Note, introduction to Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
Archive for the ‘Christianity’ Category
Jun
20
2009
Blue Like Jazz
Mar
07
2009
This is not God’s love
A week ago I went to a friend’s birthday party, all Christians.. An hour or so past midnight, in Chinatown, we were ready to go home. As we stood on the street corner, discussing rides and wrapping up conversations a homeless man came near and asked “Spare change?” We kept talking, ignoring him. None of us acknowledged his existence even once. It was awkward, he kept repeating “Spare change?” as we continued to talk, and continued to ignore him. In the lull between thoughts, I desperately tried to fill the awkward silence so we wouldn’t have to face the homeless man. We looked away from him down the street where we waited for friends to drive their cars over.
All I could think of at the time was this is not God’s love.
I keep strange hours. In my defense, I just dropped my parents off at the airport. So now it’s two weeks of…. whatever the heck I want. My own dishes, my own dinner, my own laundry… oh, and we still hafta plan Europe ’09…..
Oct
10
2008
Radars and Doublethink
They just recently installed one of those signs that tell you how far you’re driving near my house.
It’s powered by a solar panel.
This is Seattle.
Surprise, it doesn’t work.
Good job guys, good job….
Oh, and it’s surrounded on three sides by TREES.
It’s weird, strange, and bad I guess. These days, the world tells you to be confident, proud of who you are, and that if you work hard/believe in yourself, you can achieve anything. The Bible tells us that we are sinners, to be humble, and that we deserve nothing and can do nothing meaningful (or something) apart from God. I’d say I don’t know which to believe, but I do. It just feels like doublethink sometimes…. Someday, I will have to reconcile the war going on within my brain. How can I be proud of what I achieved when I so clearly don’t deserve it? =P Three “coincidences” in my life… three lucky breaks, that’s how I got here. So much for working hard……….. >.<