Blue Like Jazz

One of the things that Anne picked up for us before coming last week was Donald Miller's book Blue Like Jazz (Thomas Nelson: Nashville, 2003). It comes highly recommended by Jim Beise. Miller is 30 something author who grapples with the paradoxes of the Christian faith.

In his note at the beginning of the book, Miller writes:

I NEVER LIKED JAZZ MUSIC BECAUSE JAZZ MUSIC doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theatre in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.

After that I liked Jazz music.

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way.

I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened. (page ix).

He also writes, "In America, the first generation out of slavery invented jazz music. It is a free-form expression. It comes from the soul, and it is true."

In other news, I learned through an e-mail that Joe Robbins of 1st Presbyterian Church of Trenton died this morning after a bout with cancer. I last remember talking with him at a men's breakfast last autumn. He was one of the spiritual pillars at that church even since I remember first meeting him when I was almost 6. The funeral will probably be on Friday. It will be weird to not see him in church when we're back again. Hat's off to you Joe for faithfully walking the walk. I'll see you on the other side someday.

On a brighter note, happy birthday to my baby brother Rick, who turns 42 today.