Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

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Overview

Donald Miller's fresh and original voice may change the way Christians view the "status quo" faith and build a bridge to seekers who believe that organized religion doesn't meet their spiritual needs.

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. . . . I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened." In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Miller (Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance) is a young writer, speaker and campus ministry leader. An earnest evangelical who nearly lost his faith, he went on a spiritual journey, found some progressive politics and most importantly, discovered Jesus' relevance for everyday life. This book, in its own elliptical way, tells the tale of that journey. But the narrative is episodic rather than linear, Miller's style evocative rather than rational and his analysis personally revealing rather than profoundly insightful. As such, it offers a postmodern riff on the classic evangelical presentation of the Gospel, complete with a concluding call to commitment. Written as a series of short essays on vaguely theological topics (faith, grace, belief, confession, church), and disguised theological topics (magic, romance, shifts, money), it is at times plodding or simplistic (how to go to church and not get angry? "pray... and go to the church God shows you"), and sometimes falls into merely self-indulgent musing. But more often Miller is enjoyably clever, and his story is telling and beautiful, even poignant. (The story of the reverse confession booth is worth the price of the book.) The title is meant to be evocative, and the subtitle-"Non-Religious" thoughts about "Christian Spirituality"-indicates Miller's distrust of the institutional church and his desire to appeal to those experimenting with other flavors of spirituality. (July 15) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780785263708
Publisher: Nelson, Thomas, Inc.
Publication date: 7/17/2003
Edition description: Original
Pages: 256
Sales rank: 42,864
Product dimensions: 8.50 (w) x 10.86 (h) x 0.66 (d)

Meet the Author

Donald Miller

In 2005 Donald Miller started The Mentoring Project, an organization that helps churches start mentoring programs and pairs mentors with boys in need. Don's work with the fatherless led the Obama administration to invite him onto the president's task force on fatherlessness and mentoring. Donald is the director of The Burnside Writers Collective, an online magazine. He is a frequent speaker, appearing at events such as the Women of Faith Conference, The Democratic National Convention, and Harvard University. He still lives in Portland, Oregon with his dog Lucy

Read an Excerpt

Blue Like Jazz

Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

By Donald Miller

Walker Large Print

Copyright © 2007 Donald Miller
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9781594151545

Chapter One

Beginnings

God on a Dirt Road Walking Toward Me

I once listened to an Indian on television say that God was in the wind and the water, and I wondered at how beautiful that was because it meant you could swim in Him or have Him brush your face in a breeze. I am early in my story, but I believe I will stretch out into eternity, and in heaven I will reflect upon these early days, these days when it seemed God was down a dirt road, walking toward me. Years ago He was a swinging speck in the distance; now He is close enough I can hear His singing. Soon I will see the lines on His face.

My father left my home when I was young, so when I was introduced to the concept of God as Father I imagined Him as a stiff, oily man who wanted to move into our house and share a bed with my mother. I can only remember this as a frightful and threatening idea. We were a poor family who attended a wealthy church, so I imagined God as a man who had a lot of money and drove a big car. At church they told us we were children of God, but I knew God's family was better than mine, that He had a daughter who was a cheerleader and a son who playedfootball. I was born with a small bladder so I wet the bed till I was ten and later developed a crush on the homecoming queen who was kind to me in a political sort of way, which is something she probably learned from her father, who was the president of a bank. And so from the beginning, the chasm that separated me from God was as deep as wealth and as wide as fashion.

In Houston, where I grew up, the only change in the weather came in late October when cold is sent down from Canada. Weathermen in Dallas would call weathermen in Houston so people knew to bring their plants in and watch after their dogs. The cold came down the interstate, tall and blue, and made reflections in the mirrored windows of large buildings, moving over the Gulf of Mexico as if to prove that sky holds magnitude over water. In Houston, in October, everybody walks around with a certain energy as if they are going to be elected president the next day, as if they are going to get married.

In the winter it was easier for me to believe in God, and I suppose it had to do with new weather, with the color of leaves clinging to trees, with the smoke in the fireplaces of big houses in opulent neighborhoods where I would ride my bike. I half believed that if God lived in one of those neighborhoods, He would invite me in, make me a hot chocolate, and talk to me while His kids played Nintendo and stabbed dirty looks over their shoulders. I would ride around those neighborhoods until my nose froze, then back home where I closed myself off in my room, put on an Al Green record, and threw open the windows to feel the cold. I would stretch across my bed for hours and imagine life in a big house, visited by important friends who rode new bikes, whose fathers had expensive haircuts and were interviewed on the news.

I have been with my own father only three times, each visit happening in my childhood, each visit happening in cold weather. He was a basketball coach, and I do not know why he left my mother. I only know he was tall and handsome and smelled like beer; his collar smelled like beer, his hands like beer, and his coarse, unshaven face smelled like beer. I do not drink much beer myself, but the depth of the scent has never left me. My friend Tony the Beat Poet will be drinking a beer at Horse Brass Pub and the smell will send me to a pleasant place that exists only in recollections of childhood.

My father was a big man, I think, bigger than most, stalky and strong like a river at flood. On my second visit to my father I saw him throw a football across a gym, drilling the spiral into the opposite hoop where it shook the backboard. There was no action my father committed that I did not study as a work of wonder. I watched as he shaved and brushed his teeth and put on his socks and shoes in motions that were more muscle than grace, and I would stand at his bedroom door hoping he wouldn't notice my awkward stare. I looked purposely as he opened a beer, the tiny can hiding itself in his big hand, the foam of it spilling over the can, his red lips slurping the excess, his tongue taking the taste from his mustache. He was a brilliant machine of a thing.

When my sister and I visited my father we would eat from the grill every night, which is something we never did with my mother. My father would crumble Ritz crackers into the meat and add salt and sauces, and I thought, perhaps, he was some sort of chef, some sort of person who ought to write books about cooking meat. Later he would take my sister and me to the grocery store and buy us a toy, any toy we wanted. We'd pace the long aisle of shiny prizes, the trucks and Barbies and pistols and games. In the checkout line I'd cling to the shiny, slick box in stillness and silence. On the drive home we'd take turns sitting on his lap so we could drive, and whoever wasn't steering would work the shifter, and whoever worked the steering wheel could drink from my father's can of beer.

It is not possible to admire a person more than I admired that man. I know, from the three visits I made to him, the blended composite of love and fear that exists only in a boy's notion of his father.

There were years between his calls. My mother would answer the phone, and I knew by the way she stood silently in the kitchen that it was him. A few days later he would come for a visit, always changed in the showing of his age-the new wrinkles, the grayed hair, and thick skin around his eyes-and within days we would go to his apartment for the weekend. About the time I entered middle school, he disappeared completely.

* * *

Today I wonder why it is God refers to Himself as "Father" at all. This, to me, in light of the earthly representation of the role, seems a marketing mistake. Why would God want to call Himself Father when so many fathers abandon their children?

As a child, the title Father God offered an ambiguous haze with which to interact. I understood what a father did as well as I understood the task of a shepherd. All the vocabulary about God seemed to come from ancient history, before video games, Palm Pilots, and the Internet.

If you would have asked me, I suppose I would have told you there was a God, but I could not have formulated a specific definition based on my personal experience. Perhaps it was because my Sunday school classes did much to help us memorize commandments and little to teach us who God was and how to relate to Him, or perhaps it was because they did and I wasn't listening. Nevertheless, my impersonal God served me fine as I had no need of the real thing. I needed no deity to reach out of heaven and wipe my nose, so none of it actually mattered. If God was on a dirt road walking toward me, He was on the other side of a hill, and I hadn't begun to look for Him anyway.

* * *

I started to sin about the time I turned ten. I believe it was ten, although it could have been earlier, but ten is about the age a boy starts to sin, so I am sure it was in there somewhere. Girls begin to sin when they are twenty-three or something, but they do life much softer by their very nature and so need less of a run at things.

I sinned only in bits at first-small lies, little inconsistencies to teachers about homework and that sort of thing. I learned the craft well, never looking my teacher in the eye, always speaking quickly, from the diaphragm, never feeble about the business of deception.

"Where is your homework?" my teacher would ask.

"I lost it."

"You lost it yesterday. You lost it last week."

"I am terrible about losing things. I need to learn." (Always be self-deprecating.)

"What am I going to do with you, Donald?"

"I am grateful for your patience." (Always be grateful.)

"I should call your mother."

"She's deaf. Boating accident. Piranha." (Always be dramatic. Use hand gestures.)

I also used a great deal of cusswords. Not those churchly cusswords-dang and darnit, dagnabit and frickin'-but big, robust cusswords like the ones they use in PG movies, the ones the guys would say only to each other. Cusswords are pure ecstasy when you are twelve, buzzing in the mouth like a battery on the tongue. My best friend at the time, Roy, and I would walk home from school, stopping at the playground by the Methodist church to cuss out Travis Massie and his big sister Patty. Travis always made fun of Roy because his last name was Niswanger. It took me two years to understand why the name Niswanger was so funny.

Words turned to fists by the end of the year, and I was thirteen when I took my first punch. Square in the face. It was Tim Mitchell, the little blond kid who went to my church, and the whole time we were circling each other he was saying he was going to give me a fat lip, and I was shouting cusswords in incomplete sentences; scary cusswords. He hit me in the face and I went down beneath a sky as bright and blue as jazz music, and there were children laughing, and Patty Massie was pointing her finger, and Roy was embarrassed. There was a lot of yelling after that, and Tim backed down when Roy said he was going to give Tim a fat lip. Travis was singing the whole time: "nice-wanger, nice-wanger, nice-wanger."

Before any of this happened, though, when I was in kindergarten, I got sent to the principal's office for looking up a girl's dress during nap time, which is something that I probably did, but not for the immediately considered motive. It's more likely that her open skirt was in the way of something I really wanted to look at, because I remember the age quite well and had no interest whatsoever in what might be up a girl's dress. I received a huge lecture on the importance of being a gentleman from Mr. Golden, who stood just taller than his desk and had a finger that wagged like the tail of a dog and a tie with a knot as big as a tumor, and he might as well have been talking to me about physics or politics because I wasn't interested in whatever it was that I wasn't supposed to be interested in. But everything changed in the summer of my twelfth year.

Across the street from Roy's house was a large, empty field divided by railroad tracks, and it was there that I first identified with the Adam spoken of at the beginning of the Bible, because it was there that I saw my first naked woman. We were playing with our bikes when Roy stumbled across a magazine whose pages were gaudily dressed in colorful type and the stuff of bad advertising. Roy approached the magazine with a stick, and I stood behind him as he flipped the pages from the distance of a twig. We had found a portal, it seemed, into a world of magic and wonder, where creatures exist in the purest form of beauty. I say we found a portal, but it was something more than that; it was as if we were being led through a portal because I sensed in my chest, in the pace of my heart, that I was having an adventure. I felt the way a robber might feel when he draws a gun inside a bank.

At last Roy confronted the magazine by hand, slowly devouring its pages, handing it to me after diving deeper into the woods, off the trail common to us and our bikes. We were not speaking, only turning the pages, addressing the miraculous forms, the beauty that has not been matched in all mountains and rivers. I felt that I was being shown a secret, a secret that everybody in the world had always known and had kept from me. We were there for hours until the sun set, at which time we hid our treasure beneath logs and branches, each swearing to the other that we would tell no one of our find.

That night in bed, my mind played the images over as a movie, and I felt the nervous energy of a river furling through my lower intestines, ebbing in tides against the gray matter of my mind, delivering me into a sort of ecstasy from which I felt I would never return. This new information seemed to give grass its green and sky its blue and now, before I had requested a reason to live, one had been delivered: naked women.

* * *

All this gave way to my first encounter with guilt, which is still something entirely inscrutable to me, as if aliens were sending transmissions from another planet, telling me there is a right and wrong in the universe. And it wasn't only sexual sin that brought about feelings of guilt, it was lies and mean thoughts and throwing rocks at cars with Roy. My life had become something to hide; there were secrets in it. My thoughts were private thoughts, my lies were barriers that protected my thoughts, my sharp tongue a weapon to protect the ugly me. I would lock myself in my room, isolating myself from my sister and my mother, not often to do any sort of sinning, but simply because I had become a creature of odd secrecy. This is where my early ideas about religion came into play.

The ideas I learned in Sunday school, the ideas about sin and how we shouldn't sin, kept bugging me. I felt as though I needed to redeem myself, the 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 hose 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 think 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 dolled out rewards based on behavior and, perhaps, chance.

The slot-machine God provided a relief for the pinging guilt and a sense of hope that my life would get organized toward a purpose. I was too dumb to test the merit of the slot machine idea. I simply began to pray for forgiveness, thinking the cherries might line up and the light atop the machine would flash, spilling shiny tokens of good fate. What I was doing was more in line with superstition than 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 prayer, 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.

Continues...

Excerpted from Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller Copyright © 2007 by Donald Miller. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Anonymous

Posted May 30, 2009

This book may shake you up!

I am a conservative Christian living in the Bible Belt. Don Miller is basically a hippie living on the West Coast. At first his hippie style irritated me, but the more I read the more I realized he was actually a much better Christian than I am. Like Jesus, he goes out into the world and lives with people, loves them, and shares the gospel with them. His theology is sound. This book would appeal to a college student or young adult trying to find his or her way in the world. For an older person (like me) it's a little less comfortable to read, but perhaps even more valuable.

9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted January 8, 2008

A reviewer

In a day and age where the traditions of organized religion seem to turn off more people than it turns on comes a book reinforcing the values of the Christian way of life, while keeping its base in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Spanning his college years and beyond, Don Miller¿s Blue Like Jazz is a telling tale of finding God in the strangest of places: from an atheistic college to the ordinary, everyday people in the grocery store line ahead of us. Miller writes from an honest, straightforward perspective on the aspects of Christian spirituality¿in all areas of life¿with enough humor and wit to keep even the most laidback of readers entertained.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted December 7, 2007

Blue Like Jazz

Donald Miller¿s memoir Blue Like Jazz is an inspirational piece that any reader who has struggled with their faith in God will enjoy. Miller talks about his transitions through his Christian faith in a way that makes it extremely easy to relate to. He creates a sense of friendship with the reader and tells his stories as if he has nothing to hide. One example of Miller¿s honesty is in the beginning of the memoir. He is talking about being a boy around the age of ten and how he started to sin. He goes through an entire conversation with a teacher about a missing assignment. He adds in little side notes, tips for lying to authority. The whole scene is comedic but at the same time, difficult to imagine writing down. Few people want others to know of their deceptive sides, however, Miller shows his with no fear. His tone throughout the memoir makes him a reliable narrator who readers want to listen to. ¿I sinned only in bits at first- small lies, little inconsistencies to teachers about homework and that sort of thing. I learned the craft well, never looking my teacher in the eye, always speaking quickly, from the diaphragm, never feeble about the business of deception.¿ Miller describes his journey through faith in a way that motivates readers. One section from the book that stands out is where Miller is reading the Bible. He is up to the part in Luke where Jesus is being crucified and he describes how he feels. ¿And I remember sitting at my desk, and I don¿t know what it was that I read or what Jesus was doing in the book, but I felt a love for Him rush through me, through my back and into my chest. I started crying,...¿ The feelings that Miller expresses here are so strong, and so well presented, that it made me, as a reader, want to feel them too. I wanted to be this close to Jesus and to love him in a way that needed no explanation. It motivated me to become more religious and open with Jesus. Miller also uses comedy to show how he used to live his life. Many of his conversations with friends are humorous, but they still get across a serious message or point. In other parts of the memoir Miller puts in small comics that he made to describe how he feels. In one part of the story, he is feeling alone. He is secluded from his roommates and the outside world completely. He makes a comic about a man named Don Astronaut. Don Astronaut goes out into space in a ship, but there is an accident and he is cast out into the vast, open universe. He has a special space suit that can keep him alive. Don orbits the Earth for weeks, months, decades. All alone. Then, finally, Don Astronaut dies ¿a very lonely and crazy man - just a shell of a thing with hardly a spark for a soul.¿ The pictures in the comic make this story quite funny, but the ending scene still sends a dark and serious message of what Miller was feeling at this time in his life. Miller¿s Blue Like Jazz is comparable to Anne Lamott¿s Traveling Mercies. Both authors use comedy to reflect emotion or events. They also both show their imperfections. Miller and Lamott do not want readers to pick up their books and think that they are being preached to by someone who believes they are ¿holier than thou¿. They want everyone to know that they went through their fair share of questioning, of non-believing, of shunning God. They did not wish to forgive enemies immediately, or listen to the word of God with open ears and no resistence. They had questions about faith and God and heaven, and that is okay. This is another way that they motivate their readers. They show that it is not a horrible thing to have questions about your faith. The only important thing is to love. Donald Miller¿s Blue Like Jazz is a great read for any reader, in any stage of their life. The ideal audience for this book is a person who appreciates humor to lighten tough subjects but still likes to think about the deeper meaning of things. Miller tackles childhood, college, and adult life and in each sta

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted May 26, 2009

I Also Recommend:

Wow - this is so honest, open and sincere. It shows how God puts people in your life to show, teach, encourage. It's not pretentious or overwhelming but rather encouraging.

Wow - this is so honest, open and sincere. It shows how God puts people in your life to show, teach, and encourage. It's not pretentious or overwhelming but rather encouraging and motivating. Go slowly through the last few chapters and soak up every word.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted May 14, 2008

Okay, but not great.

When I first started to read this book, I really did not enjoy it. Miller¿s use of short and choppy sentences combined with his rapid idea changes made it hard to see the bigger picture. However, once I got used to his writing style, I realized that there was indeed a method to his madness. By writing Blue Like Jazz in this weird way, Miller was mixing background information, so we could get to know him, with his message, and using his personal experiences to tell the reader what Christianity is really about. He tries and succeeds at telling us that Christianity is an individual experience and a priest can¿t tell you how to be a perfect Christian no ore than I can. He is also telling us that it isn¿t about being perfect according to someone else, its about doing it in your own way, an individualized approach to Christianity. My only problem with this book was that I am not a religious person and, although he took an alternative approach to teaching Christianity, I find that I am not quite accepting of the ideals. It wasn¿t bad, but it wasn¿t great.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted November 27, 2007

Perspective

I did not start my introduction to Donald Miller with Blue Like Jazz but upon reading fell in love with his honesty, humor, and perspective on Christianity. I highly recommend this book for Christian's and non-Christians. I think believers can all use a raw reminder of the responsibility we are called to as followers.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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TomWL5

Posted May 8, 2012

Fantastic!

Don Miller is an excellent writer! He has a very artistic way of painting a story. I loved the book and it is very inspiring!
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mojo_turbo

Posted March 25, 2012

more from this reviewer

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller,

I don't know that I have ever read a book like Blue Like Jazz before. Author Donald Miller is a best-selling American author and public speaker based out of Portland, Oregon who focuses on Christian spirituality as "an explanation for beauty, meaning, and the human struggle." He is also the author of Searching for God Knows What and A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.

Miller writes, “There is something beautiful about a billion stars held steady by a God who knows what He is doing. They hang there, the stars, like notes on a page of music, free-form verse, silent mysteries swirling in the blue like jazz. And as I lay there, it occurred to me that God is up there somewhere. Of course, I had always known He was, but this time I felt it, I realized it, the way a person realizes they are hungry or thirsty. The knowledge of God seeped out of my brain and into my heart. I imagined Him looking down on this earth, half angry because His beloved mankind had cheated on Him, had committed adultery, and yet hopelessly in love with her, drunk with love for her.”

Blue Like Jazz is the coming of age story of the author as he struggles with his own ideas of religion and the new world he encounters away at Reed College. This isn't your parents "Inspirational Christian Reading" book either, this is a visceral piece full of honesty and truth. Blue Like Jazz is easily one of the best Christian experience books I have ever read. Donald Miller is an extremely talented writer. Blue Like Jazz will make you laugh out loud at the same time it will ask you tough questions.

Read with caution! Highly recommended.
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Chelsea11

Posted December 6, 2011

Highly Recommended

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve . . . I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened.¿ In the book ¿Blue Like Jazz¿ Donald Miller writes about what it is that happened to change his mind about jazz, but more importantly, God. It is all about Miller¿s unique path to Christ. He uses strong amounts of honesty such as, he knows that God is real, but also knows something is missing. He talks about the issues of Christianity that a lot of people deal with but don¿t actually speak about.
One of the issues Miller comes across in this book is college life. The college he attends is anything but Christian. Between the high number of atheists, and the extreme party life, I found it interesting that this is where his journey to faith was sparked.
A constant theme throughout the book was the idea that instead of blaming the world for our problems, first we must look in the mirror. Before becoming a true Christian, Miller makes clear the fact that he must be better from the inside out. This idea could shed a light to many of us today.
Donald Miller emphasizes the idea of spirituality instead of religion. Toward the end of the book a radio-host asks him to back up Christianity. Interestingly, he refuses and claims that Christianity means something different to everyone. He did say though, that he could talk about Christ and what Christ has done for him. I highly recommend this book, Christian or non-Christian, it gives anyone a new perspective on faith.
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Anonymous

Posted December 6, 2011

AMAZING!

Donald Miller¿s book, Blue Like Jazz, questioned about the idea of what it means to be a Christian. Miller wrote about the faith in a variety of topics on coming to faith, why to have faith, how Christ can transform a person, what to do with the faith and how to live life as a Christian. In Miller¿s book, several of his chapters deal with the different aspects of his faith during his time at Reed College. Reed College had people from his church and other believers that said that the school was ¿most likely to not believe in God.¿ When Miller started to attend, he met up with a group of Christians that were strong believers. They talked about the meaning to believing and living for Christ. One of his friends believed that feeding the homeless meant more than just donating money to a homeless shelter, but that it is to actually go out and feed the homeless, to give them food directly, to sit and talk and have a meal with them. I believe that the Christian faith is about living a different life than others, that we as individuals cannot change the world if we don¿t change our attitudes or behavior. I recommend this book to people who are struggling to understand Christ and how they can involve this faith into their lives.
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Anonymous

Posted December 6, 2011

A Captivating Read

David Miller¿s novel, Blue Like Jazz, was inspirational and a very entertaining read. The author¿s style of writing kept me wanting to read more and I found that I was absorbing his thoughts on his Christian way of life. This novel went through the story of Miller¿s life and how he questioned and sometimes even struggled with his Christianity. Miller was able to dig deep and really open up to his readers in a vulnerable way that made the story much more intriguing. He struggled with being in the world but eventually learned through his struggles how to deal with his faith and make it stronger. I would recommend this book to mature high school students and older. Although this is a book with Christianity throughout, it would still be interesting to follow his life story whether you are religious of not because of the nature of the plot. The readers will be able to go through the trials and doubts that the author had and hopefully in the process be able to evaluate and apply it to their own struggles in their life. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Miller¿s experiences and how he went about thinking and dealing with them. His thoughts caused me to re-evaluate some of the struggles I have dealt with in my life.
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Austin-D-Lawe

Posted December 5, 2011

Quite Good

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller is, as it says on the cover, nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality. The book follows the author Don through different parts of his life as he struggles with many of the questions that face many people today about God, Faith and spirituality. Miller does an excellent job of keeping the reader interested and in tune with what is happening within his own experiences. What really pulled me in as a reader was the way that Miller, who already has such interesting life stories, uses his elegant writing and reasoning skills to tie it all into religion seamlessly. I went into this book with a lot of skepticism, I¿m not typically drawn to books like this but I theory enjoyed it. To be honest I went into this book thinking it was about a depressed jazz artist. My only complains are that the book started a tad slow and at points it was a bit hard to keep up with the way Miller interjects stories into his stories, other then that a beautifully written book. What really impressed me though was how insightful and different many of Millers views and ideas are. They are all based on experience and almost every chapter has me looking at something differently then I had before. I would recommend this book for Christians and non-Christians alike. Though Miller doesn¿t keep his personal opinions a secret, he does a fabulous job of staying unbiased in his writing. I would defiantly recommend this book to anyone who has questions about religion or wants to dig deeper and look at things at a new angle.
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Anonymous

Posted December 5, 2011

Excellent Reflection, Appeals to young Christians

In Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller reflects on the events of his life as he grows in his understanding of Christianity. The book is rich with experience and even richer with reflection. Overall, Miller presents a captivating and readable piece that speaks to the progression of his understanding of Christianity.
Miller begins the book by describing his boyhood and how he had a very legalistic view of Christianity and how he mostly saw it as a set of rules rather than something life changing. Following his youth, he moves into his teenage and young adult years where he begins to realize his own sin and gain a deeper understanding of God¿s forgiving grace. Moving into his adult years, Miller describes his experiences with specific aspects of Christianity such as church attendance and relationships, and how these experiences helped him define Christian character.
The book¿s style is more like an assortment of essays rather than a linear story. The chapters loosely follow the progression of Miller¿s life, but for the most part they have little relation to each other. For instance, in the last few chapters he jumps from relationships to churches to handling money. This style causes the flow of the book to be a bit awkward at times because the reader may try to find a logical sequence when there is not one. Largely, however, the style is readable with its casual and clever writing. Miller fills the book with amusing constructs such as illustrations for his understanding of sin and comical anecdotes of his days at Reed College.
The entire book is filled with rich reflection that clearly demonstrates how each experience specifically affected Miller¿s life. It is very effective in captivating a Christian audience especially in the teenage and young adult age group. Although it is more of a reflective narrative rather than a concise layout of Christian theology, a young person struggling with religious identity might seek this book to both identify with someone with similar struggles and clarify Christian character.
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Anonymous

Posted December 4, 2011

Really good book

Blue like Jazz is a personal narrative of Donald Miller¿s life. It goes from his childhood to his adult life. This memoir tells is about how Miller struggles with his faith multiple times through his life. It is his faith journey with everyday life experiences worked in.
They story has an interesting flow, it does not follow his life from childhood to an adult, it jumps around from all aspects of his life. When I first started reading this book I¿ll admit that really frustrated me because there is no pattern to the age jumps, but after a while I learned to like it and found it interesting how he did not use the typical pattern to write this book.
I would recommend this book to people who are struggling with their faith and finding where they fit in. I would also recommend this to anyone who has just had a major life change and feel like they have to fit in with everyone else. This book is really effective for college students who are just finding there way into the world, however, it is also a suitable read for adults too. I would not recommend it to anyone younger than high school age and who have a hard time following a book that does not go in chronological order.
The reader gets Donald Miller¿s biography mainly through the story. What he is currently doing is speaking and still writing. He also created a mentoring program that churches help boys in need. He currently lives Portland Oregon with his dog.
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Anonymous

Posted December 1, 2011

A Captivating Read!

Blue Like Jazz, a captivating narrative, is perhaps one of Donald Miller¿s most compelling books. Miller, a best-selling Christian author from Oregon, uses his humor, ideas, and numerous personal stories to take the reader on a journey through some of the most interesting and problematic periods in his life. Not only does this narrative provide a fresh perspective to religion and Christianity, it opens readers¿ eyes to drastically different outlooks on life, love, and relationships. Despite a few downfalls, this book is a refreshing read that depicts the struggles of a man¿s life and his innermost thoughts. There are multiple enticing qualities of this book. For one, Miller provides an open, honest tone and never hesitates to share his views and opinions. For example, there are numerous points when he states his doubts about Christianity, as well as his relationships. He reveals some of the lowest points in his life and openly reflects, allowing the reader to learn from his own experiences. Miller also uses humor to engage the reader. Surprisingly, Miller¿s compilation of numerous short essays never bores the reader because of the lack of a single plot; rather, the reader is always hungry for more. Despite the vast positive aspects of Blue Like Jazz, there were a few areas in which I believe Miller may have improved this book. For one, I was not particularly pleased with his tone in the last third of the book, as Miller seemed to be complaining. Although his honesty is appreciated, he almost seemed to have an attitude of pride. Overall, I believe the cost of Blue Like Jazz to be extremely worth it. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys digging deeper into spirituality and religion or anyone looking for a fresh perspective. This narrative is unlike any book I have read, both thoroughly enjoyable and eye opening.
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JustAnotherReader

Posted July 19, 2011

Beautiful Book

I was initially drawn to the title because I figured it was a jazz memoir, but I found much more within its pages. Donald Miller writes with exceptional clarity, frankly laying out his journey through the Christian faith and attacking, illuminating, and sometimes criticizing "conventional" Christianity. He is not an ultra-conservative, holier than thou, fundamentalist didact in any way, and everything he writes is said with exceeding humility. A truly enlightening read for believers, nonbelievers, and those of us in between.
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Anonymous

Posted December 7, 2010

An Unwilted look at Spirituality!

Fresh, is the word when it comes to the book "Blue Like Jazz", and fresh, is what you will find. The author Donald Miller invites the reader into his saunter; allowing them to examine; to enter into his story of faith and the questions that come with it.
This book is in essence many stories within the bigger story. The seam that runs through it all is Don's faith and the journey has more than a few swerves along the way. Don combines curiously drawn illustrations with thought provoking insight; in a simplistic and non-threatening examination of his life and the people he has found in it.
"Blue Like Jazz" is full of this story telling dialogue with Don; as one hears both sides of the coin, the reader is invited to know Don on a deeper level as he processes his journey.

This book is candidly void of non-religious or uninhabited thought's; navigating fresh perspective's on a variety challenges in and outside the church. Don incorporates vast conversation of faith, life and beyond that has been experienced since the genesis.
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bethelstudent

Posted December 6, 2010

Great Read.

At a time where Christianity can become routine and mundane, Donald Miller arrives with Blue Like Jazz. Miller appeals to the reader with his telling tales of his experiences: finding God on an atheistic college campus, sharing Jesus with friends, and everyday struggles. Using a straightforward, sarcastic tone, Miller draws in the reader while showing the seriousness of common struggles. Wit and humor are not hard to find within this motivating collection of stories, making it an easy read. Although Miller seems to write in a relaxed, easy-going mood, he still stirs up life-changing questions, making the reader think and develop ideas for themselves. If you are a Christian looking to live out your faith outside of typical Christianity, Blue Like Jazz is a great way to start your motivation motor. Even if you are not a Christian, Miller's novel is a great peek at what Christianity has failed at doing - not something found in most religious books - and what Christians should be doing to develop their faith as followers of Christ.
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Anonymous

Posted December 2, 2010

Blue Like Jazz

In Donald Miller's book Blue like Jazz he use experiences from his own past to explain what helped shape him as a Christian today. Stories that miller told helped to give a strong message that portrayed the struggle he went through as a new Christian and what he witnessed God doing in others lives around him. In addition to his stories, Miller uses effective sentence variety to keep the readers engaged. One poor quality of Miller's writing is that some sentences are choppy and too abrupt in the context of the situation he is writing about. What makes this book so great is how Miller never tries to force his views on others, he simply tells them how he feels and leaves the interpretation to the reader. This book applies to all different types of people because he shows how important it is to love the others in our life that don't share the same views as ourselves. People might want to buy this book if they are looking for a good modern day example of how to love others with opposing views, however those who have no interest in this subject would find no need for this book.
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MrsWigg

Posted October 30, 2010

more from this reviewer

Wow!

Possibly one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. Ever. I loved this book and it was so moving. I recommend this book to everyone I know!
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Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller,

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AMAZING!

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Beautiful Book

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