bluelikejazz

I picked up the book Blue Like Jazz at the beginning of last week simply because I had heard so much about it. It seemed like everyone was reading it so I decided to see what the big deal was. Honestly, I did not want to like this book but I did. The author's candid honesty and humor just make the book flow very well and make it so that you never want to put it down. Sounds like a cheap action novel doesn't it?
I would call it autobiographical in a sense, which I was really not expecting when I picked it up. He is very willing to admit his mistakes and sometimes surprises you with the comments he makes about people and the thoughts he was having. I wonder if the people that he knew when they read the book were offended or surprised at all. Who knows?
I like that he is willing to grapple with questions of our faith that so many of us have and is real about it. It appeals to our postmodern generation that is no longer satisfied with facts but we want to feel what we believe. I think that many of us can easily identify with his writing. It got me when he said that we all love ourselves too much and are not good at loving others. At the same time he says we have to love ourselves in the right way and be willing to accept love if we are to truly be able to love. I thought, man, how true!
His struggles are real. A lot of us have trouble knowing how to share our faith or are scared of what people will say or ask us.
I like how he does not have it all together and how he's always learning, learning from the people you would least expect it. I like how he talks about getting a beer and smoking a pipe--yes Christians do this! Christians think they cannot do it or people think that Christians judge them for doing that. This guy Don Miller is real, he has been through the fundamentalist stage and made it out alive. He understands that our faith is something we share and live out. He has a sense of humor and is artistic. He is willing to listen but does not stray from Jesus being the only truth.

March 21, 2006

Spiritual Oppression
I had a thought a couple of weeks ago while in discussion with a friend. We were discussing spiritual warfare and eventually got around to the manifestations of it. I began to wonder, in our mindset that is so influenced by the enlightenment thinking of the 18th century, what is the spiritual warfare that goes on in America? As a culture that downplays the supernatural and is so reliant upon what can be proven and worships science, are we blind to spiritual movements because we cannot measure it or see it under the microscope?

At this point, you are thinking about how you have heard this before and this is nothing really new—common sense and something that is trite because we always reference it. My question is this, is the spiritual oppression and warfare that very thing that is so inextricably bound to our thinking—that which explains through reason and scientific proof? I wonder if we limit evil to supernatural phenomena that sends chills down our spines or the essence of fear. Could it be more subtle, giving the slightest nudge that causes us to go in a certain direction in our thinking? Am I giving too much credence to the opposition? I do not know.

Lending to my point/question is another thought that I had, which may again seem so obvious but I had to bring it up and see what others think. In my rumination on the topic of spiritual warfare I wondered about the limitations of spiritual oppressors. I began to think, everything must function under the system in which God created. I do not know if my reasoning is correct, but I see it that since God created the whole universe, everything is ultimately subject to His authority and the setup that He put into play. This led me to think that evil spirits are limited to the laws of physics and everything that holds the universe together. God is the only one that can make something happen that is above that system, one that defies it and happens anyway. He can make things that cannot be explained happen, He can cause miracles and whatever He pleases.

Why is this thinking significant to me? Because, if these thoughts have any sense to them at all it says a lot of science and the modern world. I am wondering that because evil is bound to the universe’s metaphysical system, are its movements occurring right before our eyes but we do not perceive it as such because we can provide a scientific explanation? If this is true, this culture is being struck with a double-whammy. Not choosing to be cognizant of spiritual oppression is of advantage to the enemy because it gives it free reign.



Feedback is very welcome, criticisms encouraged. I want to know what you think and if my thoughts are totally flawed or heretical. I want to grow in my learning and understanding, input from brothers and sisters only helps as we challenge each other. Challenge me.

January 23, 2006

I meant to clarify this last time, but it slipped my mind. I just wanted to say that although sometimes what I write may seem to be hopeless, confused, discouraged or have tinges of nihilism, I say all of these things in the context of my faith. At my very core, I know what I believe and I try to do all things based on that foundation. Most of us have struggles in our lives and faith and we have to find our way to resolve them as we seek community with others to share and be broken with so that we can help each other up. Because I know this, I do not feel the need to drop in that line of hope at the end like we tend to do when talking with those that are hurting. It is more real and honest if we say how we really feel and what we really think, because deep down I know God is there in His strength and compassion. I believe that thinkingwriting without acknowledging the pain and simply hiding in hope can stunt your growth. God knows when we are struggling because the Spirit intercedes with groans for us, and for us to not acknowledge what we are going through is not being honest with Him. Choosing to not resolve something completely and just push everything aside is the superficial copout to pain.

I realize that I have made many assumptions and so at least one of them is clarified. I feel right now I should insert a personal creed or declaration of faith that people can refer to, hehe.

Thanks to all who posted things in response to my last blog, it really is nice to get your support and encouragement. Yes, we all have a VISA (for travel, not creditcard) for earth, but we don't know when it will expire because our citizenship is elsewhere. (talk about cheeziness...hey, I'm corny, can I help it?)

Thus I will conclude with something I wrote in high-school on my senior trip. I have been never been satisfied with it, always feeling incomplete and unsure how to finish it, but I feel like posting something uplifting for once.

I gaze upon the blood red sky
It's ethereal incandescent beauty sends a chill down my spine
The haunting liturgical chant of the crickets lingers in the background
As the leaves gently whisper secrets into the wind

Crippled by veneration for your majesty
Overwhelmed with awe I am left mute
Surounded by your careful design,
To everything else around I am blind.
Surrounded by your glory
Only you can I see

October 20, 2005

*A little detour...a little more cynical than usual I guess...I wouldn’t really consider this a poem, more of an observation/criticism of what people look for in writing…



Detritus mopes along the sea floor

Normally consumed by the bottom-feeders

Strangely enough in this time and age

Scavengers come from all corners

For a delicacy oh so relished

Of decayed substance



In search of the immediately digestible

For it produces instantaneous results

Forgotten is nutrition--

Value found in rumination





*Perhaps this is incomplete, but at least the thought is out…

March 23, 2005 - Death=Debt

Death=debt.

Mood: cadaverous.

Stupidity--once you are dead, even though your material possesions do not follow you, they certainly leave you and you are responsible for how they leave you; you have to divide up your junk and will it to people.
Dumb--once you are dead you still have to pay someone to do something with your cadaver.
I just realized how dumb everything in this society is[pardon my generalizations], honestly it is ludicrous. My aunt was telling me how she was making a down payment on her cremation. Her motives are altruistic--she does not want to make the family that she leaves behind have to deal with it and pay for it themselves. Should it not be that once you die, you can finally be free of all the worries of debt and blah blah blah. Well, ok, maybe in some people's minds this does not seem all too odd. Lets take a look at the price tag and perhaps your mind will be slightly swayed. Six grand to burn your lifeless and inhibiting vehicle for your soul. I just do not get it. It costs even more to NOT burn your corpse, so you pay them more to do nothing with it (yeah yeah, I know I am simplifying it). I was already speechless about this whole ordeal when I heard that you have to pay an additional one thousand dollar bills if you want to have your ashes signed over to the care of a family member, rather than it sitting in a wall next to all the others.
Something about the thought of making downpayments way in advance is crazy to me (my aunt is still a quite a ways off from the half century mark). Something about, in a sense, going into debt so that you can die.
Seeing as I have no choice in this, in some way I will be paying for my death which will not matter, I might as well begin saving up for my death. So dumb that even death is not a way out of debt. Why does this country love debt?

February 25, 2004

The wind is back. Todays the wind seems to direct your path, causing you to turn (or more like stagger) to the left or right whenever it pleases. The thought of rebelling and going against the wind helps me understand the phrase "I lean against the wind and pretend that I am weightless". Wow.

Please forgive this pathetic city boy's awe at the wind. For all of you Bangkokians know that the proper phrase for us should be, "the smog leans against me and I discover I am lifeless" or "I lean agains the humidity and pretend/forget/dream that I am sweatless". What this has to do with wind, I'm not really sure either.