Chapter 8--gods: our tiny invisible friends

So, I know that some of you went to CIY this summer and were faced with the whole story of Moses and the Israelites and their golden calf. I know that you had to create a representation of your own false idols and demolish them. So, for most of you, this isn't new territory--this idea that we all fall short--we all manage to screw our priorities way up.
The last paragraph of this chapter reads:
...I knew Christ, but I was not a practicing Christian. I had the image of a spiritual person, but I was bowing down to the golden cows of religiosity and philosophy. It was one of those enlightenments, one of those honest looks in the mirror in which there is no forgetting who you are. It was a moment without make-believe...

I really experienced that with this chapter--all THREE times I have read it, I have had to take yet another "honest look in the mirror" and I am ashamed that, after three times, I am STILL missing opportunities left and right to be authentic and genuine. I am struggling STILL with reaching out to the broken. I am struggling STILL with not just getting completely ticked off when people fall short of my expectations (or unfortunately live up to them when my expectations are so low). I am STILL a fighter by nature and I struggle almost daily with biting my tongue when someone comes after one of my own. And, I'm not sure why I keep falling down, but I'm pretty sure it has to do with the fact that I haven't really tried hard enough to put some things behind me.

I guess, my question is, how are you guys handling your false idols--"our tiny invisible friends"? Are you still struggling with the same things you owned up to this summer? If not, what have you done to make sure that doesn't happen? I could really use the advice! If you are, what are we doing wrong?

Chapter 5--Faith

In this chapter Donald Miller talks a lot about Faith vs. Rationality. His friend Laura's "process" of believing in Jesus really made me reflect on my own journey of becoming a Christian. I don't think I have ever questioned God's existence outrightly (is that a word?). However, I fully own up to the fact that faith is not entirely rational. I may once have struggled with that, but the closer I grow to God the more I not only accept the mystery of it all, but actually enjoy it. I struggle sometimes with how to explain it to someone who really needs something rational to believe in, but I'm working on still trying.

What do you make of the ideas Miller presented about faith vs. rationality and the idea that we have a "radar" inside us that leads us to believe?

Chapter 4--Shifts

I'm really excited by the conversation that we had in class today--not to mention the fact that we actually got through an entire chapter for a change!
I've really been thinking a lot this week about Donald's friend Penny and how she is probably about as liberal as a person can get and yet she still knows and loves God. I love that she was shocked that Nadine, a Christian, "cared so much about her past and her story." I'm sure there are an awful lot of Non-Christians out there who have felt the same way--that we Christians could give a crap less about who they are or where they come from. I have to admit, I can see why. Honestly, I am frequently guilty of staring right through or around some people. Even though there's not much more that ticks me off than feeling like the person to whom I am speaking is totally zoned out and not paying attention to a word I'm saying, I know I have done it to other people. But, I love that Nadine stopped and listened to Penny and, above all else, cared about Penny and what she'd been through, how she felt, where she was coming from. If she hadn't first treated her with that kind of dignity, Penny would likely have never broken down some of the presumtions she had about Christians. And, if she hadn't done that, she likely never would have come to know Christ. It gives me great hope that Nadine was patient with Penny, that she loved her exactly where she was and she didn't have to shove Jesus down her throat to show Him to her. I'm not equipped to be a door-to-door salesman for Jesus, and I know that I don't have to be. I can show people Jesus without "selling" him. It seems so much more real, so much more authentic that way--and about ten thousand times more effective.
And, I love that when Penny read the gospel of Matthew at face value, without reading anything into it or getting anyone else's interpretation of it, she saw Jesus for what he really was--a humanitarian that loved EVERYONE! And, for the first time in her life she thought he might actually like her. So, here's my challenge to you this week. I would like to challenge you to sit down sometime this week (it will probably take about an hour) and read one of the gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John--all the way through. Don't try to read anything into it. Just take it at face value, read it for what's there. I think you'll be very surprised by the Jesus that you find when you leave your experiences behind you. Let me know how it impacts you. I'll do the same.

Chapter 3b

Ok, so prior to reading this chapter I probably would have vehemently argued with anyone who told me I had made assumptions about Jesus. I'm pretty sure I would have said that everything I had ever been taught about Jesus was "the gospel truth" even if I had never taken the time to examine it for myself. But, the more I reflect on a lot of this stuff, the more I realize I may have been wrong.
I'm pretty sure Jesus would not isolate himself from people because they had a different background or different life experience or different set of values--in fact, he CHOSE to hang out with the downtrodden, the vile, the angry, the defeated. He loved the tax collectors, the adultresses, the Roman soldiers who eventually crucified him--he even continued to hang out with Judas when he knew about his ultimate betrayal.
Not to beat the old political horse to death, but I'm pretty sure Jesus would not agree wholeheartedly with either political party or with any candidate we have had an opportunity to elect, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't bash whoever we had to choose from. He even instructed the Pharisees and Herodians to "give to Caesar what is Caesar's"--an emperor who claimed to be the son of God!
I love the story Donald Miller uses about the Navy SEAL rescuing the hostages. It REALLY captured what I'm pretty sure Jesus was all about--about snuggling up to the dirty and the broken to show them He is trustworthy. What about you? Was this image of the Navy SEAL a more appealing hero than what you know and believe about Jesus? Why or Why not?

Chapter 3a

So, I didn't have you guys read anything for homework this week because I was really hoping that some of the things we talked about in class on Sunday would resonate with you this week. I know there is a LOT in chapter three that has stuck with me since the first time I read the book a few months back and it seems to stand out to me even more as we read it together.

I want to let you guys in on a dirty little secret...sometimes, I'm not sure what I believe. As someone who has always prided myself on being very sure of myself, this is a very big deal. I don't mean I don't believe in God or that I'm not a Christian. I know where I stand on the big stuff--the Trinity, Salvation, etc. But, I think I have become distracted by a lot of the things I have been taught (even by other Christians) and I neglect Jesus' teachings. As far as Christianity goes, the more I step back and REALLY examine things, the more I find I really don't know and the more I question what I always thought I knew. I think that Jesus is probably frequently offended by some of the things we taut in his name. I think that he would probably point out to us that we have trivialized so much of his message and missed the most important part--we were CREATED to be in community--with God and with one another and we are really great at fouling up relationships up because we don't take the time to pay attention to the people around us. I think that Jesus cares more about how I treat the guy sitting across the aisle than he cares about what songs I sing on Sundays.
When Donald Miller says, "In order to believe Chfristianity, you either had to reduce enormous theological absurdities into children's stories or ignore them," that also really speaks to me. I think I am pretty good at ignoring the things I don't know what to do with. But, I know that pretty much everything Jesus said boils down to how we treat one another and I need to work on that.
I have really been thinking a LOT about you guys this week. I hope you're having a good one. See you Saturday if you're going to Six Flags. See you Sunday if you're not! K

Chapter 2--Problems

I am the problem. I’ve been a Christian for a while and I’m pretty sure that early on I realized I was MY problem. I don’t know that I would have willingly admitted to being a global problem until I read this chapter. It’s kind of hard to swallow at first, but I see it. I know I am not responsible for carrying out some of the atrocities that are out there—I’m not raping anyone in the congo…I’m not slashing anyone to bits with a machete…I’m not kidnapping, torturing, robbing, yada, yada, yada. I get that. But here's the thing. I'm not doing a darn thing to change any of the evils out there and, what's worse, I can't even be bothered to THINK about such atrocities most of my day. And it's not just the global issues, I've got people suffering all around me, EVERY STINKING DAY and I don't even take time to notice.
See, here's the thing, this world is full of all kinds of different people--people I like, people I love, people that, given the next 50 or 60 years I can learn to tolerate, people that will irritate me until the day that I die--but they are all people. We all have a story. We all have hurts, we all have needs, we all have wants and dreams and desires. We are all created in God's image and, as such, are worthy of dignity and respect--EVEN if I don't agree with them, EVEN if they bother the heck out of me, EVEN if I KNOW THEY ARE WRONG.
I was really hit hard by a lot of things in this chapter, but perhaps the most prolific to me was:
I talk about love, forgiveness, social justice; I rage against American materialism in the name of altruism, but have I even controlled my own heart? I overwhelming majority of the tiem I spend thinking about myself, pleasing myself, reassuring myself, and when I amd done there is nothing to spare for the needy. Six billion people live in this world, and I can only muster thoughts for one. Me.
OUCH! So, I have seen the "needy beast of a thing that lives in my chest" and I don't like it. I know I cannot bring an end to poverty, starvation or disease. I cannot bring about world peace, but I can take more time to be more aware of people around me, to treat them with dignity and respect, to try a little harder every day to be a better representative of Jesus. That's pretty much The Gospel as I see it. Now I just need to start living it.
So, what about you? What stood out for you in chapter 2? What have you been convicted by?
Have a blessed week. Looking forward to seeing you all on Sunday!

Week One Thoughts

So, I've said (probably about five too many times) that Blue Like Jazz completely changed my perspective. I don't know that that is necessarily accurate. I would have to say that really it solidified my thinking. I found that I identified with so many facets of Donald Miller's spiritual walk.

In the remainder of the first chapter, there was a section that particularly stood out to me. It begins on page 8:

The ideas I learned in Sunday school, teh ideas about sin and how we shouldn't sin, kept bugging me. I felt as thought I needed to redeem myself, teh way a kid feels when he finally decides to clean his room. My carnal thinking had made a mess of my head, and I felt as though I were standing in the doorway of my mind, wondering where to begin, how to organize my thoughts so they weren't so out of control.

That's when I realized that religion might be able to those things down, get me back to normal so I could have fun without feeling guilty or something. I just didn't want to have to thibnk about this guilt crap anymore.

For me, however, there was a mental wall between religion and God. I could walk around inside religion and never, on any sort of emotional level, understand that God was a person, an actual Being with thoughts and feelings and that sort of thing. To me, God was more of an idea. It was something like a slot machine, a set of spinning images that doled out rewards based on behavior and, perhaps chance...

...What I was doing was more in line with superstition that spirituality. But it worked. If something nice happened to me, I thought it was God, and if something nice didn't, I went back to the slot machine, knelt down in pprayer, and pulled the lever a few more times. I liked this God very much because you hardly had to talk to it and it never talked back. But the fun never lasts."

I know I have found it very convenient to make God this impersonal, especially early in my journey.

What do you think about Donald Miller's image a of a slot-machine God? What resonated with you in the remainder of the chapter?