‘Blue Like Jazz’ – a brief review

Usually when something becomes a big hit with almost everyone, my reaction is to stay away from it. I’m a natural skeptic, and the ubiquitious is typically a target for my raised eyebrow and folded arms. For instance, When LOST came on the air and people went crazy over it, I avoided it until ABC re-aired the first few episodes in January 2005. So I watched it then and was hooked. I actually wept during the finale, though now I don’t remember why, and I still don’t understand exactly what happened.

I waited two years to get my first iPhone. I’m only now giving Evernote a try. And my wife and I watched the first five seasons of The Office on Netflix this year because, well, everyone else liked it and that meant it wasn’t for me. I’m no early adopter, preferring a “we’ll see” attitude toward most everything.

I’m no different when it comes to Christian books, Bible studies, or other phenomena. Usually, stuff like that goes away after a while, and then something else comes along to take its place. The writings of Donald Miller might fall into that category, except they haven’t gone away. A coworker told me I “had to” read Blue Like Jazz back in 2006. So yes, I refused. And then I saw the book everywhere – on people’s work desks, in their hands at Starbucks, and on top of their Bibles at church. I continued my resistance.

Until a new friend I respect a great deal told me she has given away seven copies of the book. Every time she buys one, it ends up in someone else’s hands. That said more to me than any recommendation I had heard.

So a few months ago, Blue Like Jazz was only $1.99 for Kindle. I thought, if I’m ever going to buy this book, it will be now. I told my friend I would read it and let her know what I thought.

But first I should tell you what I expected. I’m basically Reform, quasi-Calvinist theologically. Liberal, Moderate, and especially Emergent Chrisitanity are all repugnant to me. And something about the vibes this book gave off made me think it was going to fall into one of those camps. Other well-known theologians and Christian bloggers do not care for Donald Miller, and so I expected I would not either.

Having completed the book, here are three main things I’ve learned.

1. Blue Like Jazz is not a danger to the church or to an individual believer. If you approach it expecting a neat, tidy foray into one Christian’s spiritual experience, you will be disappointed. This book is messy. It doesn’t answer every question it asks. Miller takes you on an honest journey through his search for truth – and Jesus’ search for him – and I think he expects you to be okay with that.

2. Donald Miller nails two critical truths: The chief problem with man and mankind is personal sin, and Jesus is the only solution. Even from early in the book, Miller makes these two things clear. His doubts and struggles – both emotionally and spiritually – don’t always make these evident, but he eventually gets back around to one or both of them.

3. This book is not an evangelistic tool and shouldn’t be used as such. The details of salvation are present but disconnected. It would take many conversations to tie everything in this book together into an explanation of how God saves people from sin. I would more recommend this book to a mature believer, or to one struggling with doubts about God, or perhaps to someone who has been hurt or disappointed by the church. Miller has been all of those, and yet he doesn’t make excuses for remaining in doubt or disillusionment. He deals with his sin head-on, although it takes him a while to get there, and he learns to bring his problems and his repentance to Christ alone where they belong. I would have preferred that Miller provided a clearer understanding of how we need to progress toward a fuller theological understanding of grace and redemption. But that’s not why I read the book in the first place.

All these things are good, and they would have been enough to make me both like and recommend Blue Like Jazz. But something else much more important happened as I read it, and it’s the main reason I want others to give it a try.

Reading Donald Miller’s story was like reading my own, even though our two paths to Christ are starkly different. Miller’s was sort of like those Family Circus cartoons, where Billy wanders throughout his entire house, and there’s a dotted line that shows his trail. When he finally gets to his mom with her aggrivated expression, Billy says, “What? I came when you called!”

My path to Christ was more like an express bus pass. Get on, no stops, sail through childhood, graduate from high school, leave for college, and when you get off Jesus will be there to greet you. I’ve never hung out with hippies in the woods, lived with a political protestor, or set up a confession booth in the middle of a drunken sin-fest. At least that’s how I saw things, until I read this book.

And now I see that my life in Christ has been just as messy, just as filled with doubts, sins, and disappointments as Miller’s. It’s just that the details of my journey are “cleaner,” more presentable and predictable. But more than anything, I see how much like Donald Miller I really am. And that’s the part of the book that has affected me so profoundly. Like him, I have long struggled with introversion, a lack of empathy and compassion for others, and a deep-seated self-centeredness that has denied me many opportunities for meaningful relationships during my life. The Lord is doing a work in me these days, forcing me to repent of these sins so that He can make me more like Him. Allowing this book to fall into my hands at this time seems to be part of His plan.

If you’re a skeptic like me, I encourage to read Blue Like Jazz for what it is, without criticizing it for being what it doesn’t claim to be. I wonder if you’ll find yourself in its pages like I have.