Blue Like Jazz...But Bright By Love

Foofs&Foofs summer '05 hangin in SanDiego before my first deployment

I needed something a little uplifting today, so I combed through my deployment journals knowing I'd find a golden nugget somewhere ;)  I stumbled across these excerpts I noted in my 28 December 2006 entry after reading Donald Miller’s wonderful work, Blue Like Jazz. Tori sent me it the second time I was in Iraq and I was grateful for the soulful read.  It was one of my favorite books before I even finished it.  (PS his book Searching For God Knows What that I read last year is even better!) 

-Andrew is the one who taught me that what I believe is not what I say I believe; what I believe is what I do. (p110)

-How to go to church without being angry: Pray that God will show you a church filled with people who share your interests and values; Go to the church God shows you; and Don’t hold grudges against any other churches.  God loves those churches almost as much as he loves yours. (p.138)

-Marriage is so much more than I thought it’d be.  One of the ways God shows me He loves me is through Danielle and one of the ways God shows Danielle He loves he is through me.  and because she loves me and teaches me that I am lovable I can better interact with God.  I mean that to be in a relationship with God is is to be loved purely and furiously.  And a person who thinks himself unlovable cannot be in a relationship with God because he can’t accept who God is; a Being that is love.  We learn that we are lovable or unlovable from other people.  That is why God tells us so many times to love each other. (p.146/147)

-I think society puts too much pressure on romantic love, and that is why so many romances fail.  Romance can’t possibly carry all that we want it to.  Tony says the words “alone,” “lonely,” and “loneliness” are three of the most powerful words in the English language.  I agree with Tony.  Those words say that we are human; they are like the words “hunger” and “thirst.”  But they are not words about the body – they are words about the soul.  (p152)

-It was the affection of Christ – not the brutality of a town – that healed Zacchaeus.  He went on to speak on the great danger of a harsh word – the power of unlove to deteriorate a person’s heart and spirit – and how – as representatives of the grace and love of God – our communication should be seasoned with love and compassion.  (p.183)

-And so I have come to understand that strength – inner strength – comes from receiving love as much as it comes from giving it.  I think apart from the idea that I am a sinner and God forgives me – this is the greatest lesson I have ever learned.  When you get it – it changes you.  My friend, Julie, from Seattle told me that the main prayers she prays for her husband is that he will be able to receive love.  And this is the prayer I pray for all my friends because it is the key to happiness.  God’s love will never change us if we don’t accept it.  (p.232)

-If you haven’t done it in awhile pray and talk to Jesus.  Ask Him to become real to you.  Ask Him to forgive you of self-addiction; ask Him to put a song in your heart.  I can’t think of anything better that could happen to you and thanks for listening to us sing. (p240)