Blue Like Jazz Archives

I blame Donald Miller for the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done in a car. During my first semester I made a weekly two hour drive from my undergrad in Searcy, Arkansas to a small seminary in Memphis. A friend of mine had given me a copy a then unknown paperback memoir named Blue Like Jazz. I only had a few chapters left and I couldn’t put it down. I held the book on my steering wheel, and did my best to split my attention between the page and the road as I read the last few pages.

Reading Blue Like Jazz for the first time was like getting a big hug and being told “no, you aren’t crazy.” There were other people in the world struggling with genuine desire to follow Christ in spite of the hypocrisy of their church traditions. The book helped me to verbalize my desire to help lead urban, post-Christendom churches. It’s probably a part of why I chose to move to Austin.

I was lucky enough to see a premier of the movie version of Blue Like Jazz during last week’s SXSW. Despite the fact that the movie suffers from the lack of budget and writing expertise that any indie films does, it captures the honesty and hopefulness that made the book a quick classic.

The film features strong performances from familiar faces, and powerfully captures the intellectualism, natural beauty and post-Christendom baggage of cities like Portland. The fact that plot and characters could be stronger does not take away from a few powerful scenes. The scene where the main character Don explains to his love interest Penney that her honest passion for justice “makes everyone around her feel like shit,” portrays the awkwardness many feel when they engage with Christians. Another scene has Don cuddling, cajoling and comforting his broken hearted lesbian best friend. And of course, there is a confession booth scene, which, despite some unavoidable cheesiness, captures the apologetically apologetic heart of the book.

Blue Like Jazz isn’t destined to win any Oscars. It’s mainly a nod to the fans an experiment for the writers. That being said, it should also be required viewing for American Christians learning to live in a world where they are a minority.

When I had the pleasure of sitting in a small group discussion at Halcyon on Fourth Street led Donald Miller, I refrained from saying the two things I’ve always thought about saying to him: 1) Something mushy like, “Thank you for writing the book that captured a generation and changed my life,” or 2)”You jerk! Blue Like Jazz was the book I always wanted to write!” But seriously, I ‘m just really thankful for Don’s words, honesty, and now his story.

In A Million Miles in a Thousand Years Don branches out from reflective essays, to telling the story of him learning to tell stories. A life worth living is much like a story, where a character wants something, and has to overcome some difficulty to obtain it. He tells about people who he’s met that live great stories, and his own attempts-including a hike through the Andes, launching a non-profit, and a failed engagement- at writing a story of his own life.

In a dark but hopeful scene after Don’s breakup, where he looks out over a campfire, and realizes that although he’s trying to write a great story out of his life, it’s just the story of a tree in the story of a forest. You don’t have to be the center of the universe to have a great story. A tree never ceasing trying to be the best tree it possibly can, but it is only one small part of the forest.

It reminds me a bit of the great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11. The heroes of the faith, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, leaders like Moses, prostitutes like Rahab, and the prophets will be there. The author of Hebrews then talks about Jewish martyrs who stood up to pagan empires who are also a part of the cloud. Who from the Christian story will be there? Heroes like Polycarp and Wycliffe? Peacemakers like St. Francis? Revolutionaries like Dr. King? There will be an untold number of others who you wouldn’t expect. Each a tree, combining to make up the story of the forest of God and his people.

A Million Miles has inspired me to edit my life, stop trying to make it all about me, and join the others in the forest.

Archives For Blue Like Jazz

Blue Like Jazz Film Gives Hope for the New Christian Minority

You Don’t Have to Be the Center of the Universe to Have a Great Story

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