Safe flight to Michigan, Blue Like Jazz reflections

Today I flew from Paris to Detroit, Michigan. As I traveled alone this time, it was a calmer trip than what I'm used to. I could empathize with those parents who were traveling with young children who were getting restless on the plane.

The 8 hour flight seemed to take forever. I fell asleep at takeoff, was woken up for the beverage service, watched 2 films ("The Wedding Crashers" and "The Perfect Man"), read from Jeremiah and John in the Bible, as well as 4 chapters of Don Miller's "Blue Like Jazz."

While I read the first couple of chapters of "Blue Like Jazz," I didn't understand why the book was so highly regarded. But now I do. I appreciate his honest sharing and interaction with both Christians and people who don't know Jesus yet, but are on the way.

In his chapter on "redemption," Miller writes: And that's the tricky thing about life, really, that the things we want most will kill us. Tony the Beat Poet ready me this ancient scripture recently that talked about loving either darkness or loving light, and how hard it is to love light and how easy it is to love darkness. I thik that this is true. Ultimately, we do what we love to do. I like to think that I do things for the right reasons, but I don't, I do things because I am self-addicted, living in the wreckage of the fall, my body, my heart, and my affections are prone to love things that kill me...Jesus gives us the ability to love the things that we should love, the things of Heaven...When people who follow Jesus love the right things, they help create God's kingdom on earth, and that is something beautiful. (p. 77)

In his chapter on "grace," he writes: 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. Accepting God's kindness and free love is something the devil does not want us to do. If we hear, in our inner voice, a voice saying that we are failures, we are losers, we will never amount to anything, this is the voice of Satan trying to convince the bride that the groom does not love her. This is not the voice of God. God woos us with kindness, He changes our character with the passion of His love. (p. 86)

Larry & Eleanor Sutton were there to pick me us after I got through customs and baggage claim. We had turkey and mashed potatoes at their place afterwards (as today is Thanksgiving). The jet lag started catching up to me around 8:00 p.m. EST (which is 2 a.m. Paris time).