Blue Like Jazz By Donald Miller (A Book Review)

Blue Like Jazz is a take on Christianity written from the perspective of someone who isn't very spiritual. Writer Donald Miller takes a look at the ideal of Christianity from a more human perspective rather than that from the pages of a Bible or the walls of a church. He explains how he comes to realize that Christianity can be found even in the smallest instances. Written during the time when Bush was still president we see Miller is taking a look at simple things like the parts of writing a story, playing a slot machine, or a protest. He takes us through a journey from Childhood into adulthood and looks at life from both perspectives.

Although you can read more than one chapter in a sitting I highly recommend that you don't. Some of the concepts seem to be a bit complex for the Christian mind to think about. He (the author) makes you question everything that you know about Christianity and if attending a tradition church setting is just brainwashing our minds to think in a certain way, sort of like what school does. You are forced to think inside of a bubble and then later pushed out into the word thus popping that bubble and opening your eyes to the things that you had been so blind to before.

Miller takes the simplest concepts such as sin and forces us to look at them from multiple perspectives such as that of a child buying his mom a Christmas present only after buying what he wanted or happening upon a nude magazine while out riding bikes. He makes us question if we are blinding kids to the fact that there is sin or if our own minds are only allowing us to see sin starting at a certain age. This is where he then starts to question if it is at the teenage years we start to ask ourselves about Christianity and if we actually believe what we read or only accept it because it has been engrained in our minds for so long by parents who forced us to attend church. During this time, Miller asks if the devil is just hardening our hearts to Jesus by getting us in the rhythm of going to church or if we are actually being touched by Jesus much like we feel the wind or see the leaves change color on the trees. Are we acknowledging that Jesus is causing a change within us or is the devil placing us in a rut and blinding us to that very fact?

The firs thing that Miller compares God to is that of a slot machine. He states that we are drawn in by the mystery. Once we learn the game we stay to play until we win. He claims this is the instant gratification that God gives us sometimes. He states that as a child he kept returning to God time and time again just waiting for that instant gratification; the moment when you would pull the lever and hit three cherries and feel the amazement. He states that he sometimes felt that there was nothing that kept him returning to the machine (or God in this instance). After so many times of winning you don't feel the satisfaction anymore no matter how many times you win.

He then states that we find the elements of a story (setting, conflict, climax, and resolution) within the parts of the Bible. He states that for most of us this is the first time that we learn about these parts of a story. He explains that through the parts of a story we are able to learn about original sin and why we as humans have conflict in our daily lives. We see the first sin in Genesis when Adam and Eve are tempted to eat from the tree of life (setting and conflict). This leads us into the climax when they ate he fruit. Then God casts Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden which leads into the rest of the story (resolution). Miller states that by learning the elements of a story he now understood Christianity a bit better. Christianity gives us a decision (climax) and leads us into decision (resolution) and our lives play the setting. Depending on the choices we make determines the way our story ends just like how the Bible says it will.

During his time as a student at Reed College writer Donald Miller finds himself questioning his faith even more. The school is said to be one of anti-faith and fights anyone who is religious. It's here that the author admits to being Christian but not one who follows the faith. He questions if God is even following along with him or allowing him to walk his own path. Due to the school being so anti-religious he does find himself joining up with other religious people in secrecy in order to pray and read the Bible. It is here where he learns about how his friend Penny came to know God through speaking to another student and hearing God speak to her. He questions her sanity throughout her story because of the fact that she was on drugs and drinking when God told her to turn away from the path that she was on. This is what ultimately leads him to questioning why God would still be trying to work his magic on a campus so anti-Christ and also work through the most lost and broken of people.

About a third of the way through the book is when Miller asks one of the most important questions of all. He asks if we start to question our faith because we are not feeling the joy of it all the time. He compares this to a couple who breaks up because they do not feel the "love" after a while of being together. If God is supposed to walk by us in life then why does he tempt us with the things of life that He knows are bad for us? By God doing this He then forces us out of that joy in order to determine if we are going to follow him. Miller then tells us that he understands that our heart longs for the things of the world but then learns that those things are not going to give us an eternal joy, but rather an instant gratification that we will regret the next day.

By now you have probably grasped onto the fact that the writer is a Christian but not a practicing Christian. He asks questions that are sometimes hard for us to understand. he states that during a certain period in his life he is left wanting more out of Christianity. he touches on the fact that most of us stray away from God at certain points in our life because we are asking God for more. Christ gives us answers in a way He feels would be best for us. We may not get the luxury we ask for but rather, something practical. Miller uses the analogy of Moses leading the israelites out of slavery. He puts himself into the place of them once they see Moses leave to talk to God. Moses returns only to find them praying to a golden statue of a cow. Miller says that because we cannot see God or feel him we often stray away from him and look for something tangible to hold onto when we don't receive the answers we are looking for. He says that at other points we stray from God because we are wanting to be relevant to the times. During the time of his writings, Americans were seeing Muslim countries as the enemy, but a lot were asking why they were the enemy. In order to understand them a lot he turned towards learning about the Muslim faith and some even ended up converting. Miller states that we should be appreciative of any answer we receive from God because we never know if He is leading us to something greater in the distant future.

Have you ever been in a journey of self-discovery? I only ask because the book seems to be about that. The writer tells us of his journey with God and his struggle to find God. Are we as humans so apt to get into a rut and stick there? The writer lets us know that in order to find God we need to find ourselves. We need to discover life and what it means to take a journey. Sometimes that might just mean spending the day out in nature. Most of us can assure ourselves that we aren't going to find our adventure from the screen of a television or a phone. Finding ourselves is mostly done through the pages of a book, a passion we may have, or taking a trip out into nature. It's like when a child discovers magic the first time they visit the zoo and learns that the creatures they have only read about are actually real and not just a figment of their imagination.

I'm sorry. This is a theme of the book that happens to play out a lot. You find yourself waiting to apologize for the things that the world has done. THis was something the author himself found. He was sorry for the way that Christianity was portrayed. You want to convert people to Christianity rather than explain to them who Jesus is and why you follow God. It is as if you are trying to sell them something rather than make them understand something. We so often get lost in watching infomercials at night because nothing else is on. They are trying to sell us on their product rather than show us how it can be used. You watch those people make a steak inside their air fryer and then get caught up in wanting to do something else. You watch them make a huge pan of veggies or a cake and feel like you can do the same thing. You are sold on the product and buy it when you know so often that you won't ever bake a cake or cook the steak. You don't ever see a practical use for the item in those infomercials. It's the same way with God. We proclaim we are Christian, but we never show that Christianity or act like Jesus. He went out and helped the homelessness, the hungry, the poor. We who proclaim to be Christians often think more of ourselves than we do of helping others. This is why the author tells us that we need to help others and show them why we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior rather than trying to convert them to Christianity.

We as humans yearn for love and to be loved. We yearn for a relationship with someone of this earth that we can share our experiences with. Miller poses the question asking us how we can love someone if we don't fully love ourselves? This is a question I am convinced that everyone has asked themselves at least once in their lives. From the first moment you learn about love or what it means to like someone more than your own self you start to ask yourself that question. Miller states that you should learn to love yourself before you can fully know God and before you can have a relationship with anyone else. This is not necessarily a bad thing. This is so that we do not hurt someone involuntarily because we do not fully comprehend that some of the things they may be doing are rather to benefit us rather than harm us. He states that sometimes it isn't even about loving the other person rather about learning about them and learning to tolerate them. Miller states that sometimes there are people in our lives that we cannot avoid, and we must learn to understand them before we can learn to understand our walk with God and why He did some of the things He did and especially the things done for us. Miller also poses a secondary question: how can you learn to love someone else when the only place you have ever been alone? He asks this because he understands that he (like some people) like to spend their time by themselves. It's not because they do not like people. It is simply because they like to avoid the drama and chit-chat that may come from having someone around.

Near the end of the book, we are asked to follow Jesus and put our faith in him that most don't think about. Writer Donald Miller speaks with a friend who informs him that God is asking us to follow and trust in him through our simple act of tithing. That even if we have next to nothing God is telling us that he will make something as long as we tithe. During this time, he states that once we start following Him we also find the awe and wonder that God has put on this earth. Our minds are not complex enough to understand God or what He can do. This is not something that we should feel bad about. God wants it to be this way. Miller states that if we could understand God fully then we may not choose to follow him. It may just be a black and white answer. Sometimes like how one would figure out the answer to a math equation. You don't find wonder and awe in it because there is only one right answer. God is not a "one-answer-to-all-questions" type. He is multiple answers to multiple questions, and this is the awe that we find in Him. The reason we choose to follow Him. It is because He is ever changing and showing us new things every day.

Throughout the book you learn so much about what it means to love someone. Not until you get towards the end of the book do you really start to understand people and how to love them from a worldly perspective rather than a Christian one. Don Miller tells us that Christians claim love to be unconditional yet have this set of conditions in which they judge people by. As Christians we state people cannot be homosexual, feminists, and those who cuss, smoke, or drink. Doesn't the Bible state that Jesus turned water into wine and the people drank and were merry? Doesn't the Bible tell us to love our neighbor as ourselves? Miller tells us that until we remove the stick from our own eye we will not see the world as a beautiful place filled with love within people who tend to be different than ourselves. That we can connect with people who are different than us and yet still love God in the same moment.

The book as a whole was a way to look at religion in a different perspective. You learned what it meant to talk to God when you weren't in a spiritual place. Donald (Don) Miller teaches us that it is sometimes okay to step away from religion and try to find yourself. Nothing is wrong with that. The only thing wrong would be to give up your religion as a whole. He makes us understand that we need to seek God and find truth in every little aspect of life. That we as Christians don't need to be sitting in a church seat in order to understand that God is always with us. We need to love our neighbors as ourselves, help those who need it, and lead people back to Jesus. Nothing more can be done about finding Jesus and leading people back to him unless we step outside the walls of our comfort zone and just get out there and do it. That is the true nature of how this book dwindles down. It is good to see Jesus in places where we never thought he would be: a non-religious college campus, a book store, a local diner, in the middle of an apartment room full of non-spiritual people. Just take a look around and you will find Jesus trying to speak to you.