Blue Like Jazz

Here are some exceprts from Donald Miller's book, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality. It's a good book for those "always been a Christian" or at least "been a Christian for so long" people like myself.

On interacting with the non-Christian world:

"I like the idea of loving people just to love them, not to get them to come to church." (135)

"…it wasn’t my responsibility to change somebody, it was God’s that, my part was just to communicate love and approval." (221)

On the Christian:

"I believe the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil, but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God."

"…I will love God because he first loved me. I will obey God because I love God. But if I cannot accept God’s love, I cannot love Him in return, and I cannot obey Him. Self discipline will never make us feel righteous or clean; accepting God’s love will. The ability to accept God’s unconditional grace and ferocious love is all the fuel we need to obey Him in return…by accepting God’s love for us, we fall in love with him, and only then do we have the fuel we need to obey. (86)

On God:

"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."

Miller, Donald. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003.