Jesus and Jazz

I read somewhere recently that the book “Blue Like Jazz” has sold over a million copies. That makes sense, because back when I read it in college it seemed like everyone I knew was talking about it. With his book, Donald Miller struck a chord with young Christians in a way that I haven’t seen since. The closest comparisons I have to it are Toms shoes and The Civil Wars - we all loved them and claimed them as our own. They inspired us and gave us hope for our secular credibility. 

Reading “Blue Like Jazz” justified and strengthened the feelings I had that living an authentic life of faith might not look the same as what I saw in the subculture I grew up in. We can call it post-modern or emergent or relevant, but I think we’ve all seen a movement away from the separatist Christian bubble and towards a culture-engaging openness. We like the world, and we want it to like us back. Those jerks they interview on the news when they need a “Religious Right-Wing” sound byte about abortion or gay marriage do not represent us as a whole. That’s not what we want to be about. We want to be about loving and engaging the world, putting beauty into it, and inviting others to find hope and rest in Christ.

Or do we?

I saw “Blue Like Jazz” the movie yesterday, and it got me thinking about all of this (I won’t comment much on its merit as a film, other than to say I think they did a good job and it’s definitely worth seeing). In one of the previews I saw online for the film, you see one of the characters say, “I’m ashamed of Jesus.” That line alone drew me to the theatre because I wanted to see where that was going. Of course it was the huge moment in the film. The lead character, who has been running away from his Christian past, confesses the sentence I mentioned. But he doesn’t stop there, and this is what really messed me up and got my head and my heart spinning. “I’m ashamed of Jesus,” he says, “because I want you to like me.”

Sound familiar?
I know I’ve been there.

I think many of us have leaned so far into the “we want the world to like us and respect us and still be Christians” frame of mind that we’ve started to lose our love and affection for Jesus in the process. We all see the obvious friction between the ultra-conservative Christian subculture and the world we live in, but an equal tension exists when we try so hard to be relevant. In both ways we forget to lead with Christ. If the world likes us more because we’re nicer and more creative and cooler than previous generations of Christians, have we really accomplished anything? If we don’t give them Jesus then what is it worth? 

I have lots of questions and very few (if any) answers. I know that something resonates deep within me when I think about being the kind of person who represents my faith well in the world, but I also know that a lot of the things that Jesus said and that I read in the Bible simply won’t go over very well in our culture. How do I follow faithfully and stay relevant at the same time? I want to be so wrapped up in Jesus that people think I’m weird, but so humble and kind and generous that they’re drawn to me anyway. That’s a narrow path to navigate.

Life is about that journey, that navigation. We may never reach the destination, just like jazz doesn’t resolve.

But we keep moving. 

Being Known

Out of all the people you know - your hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Facebook friends and Twitter followers - how many people actually KNOW the real you?

I would venture to say that even the most transparent of individuals has thoughts, feelings, and personality traits that they rarely permit others (even close friends) to come in contact with. Why is this?

We like to be liked, so the best parts of our personalities are the ones we allow to reach the surface. We’re trained from an early age that we need to fit in, so we tend to suppress the things about us that might cause others to reject us. 

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Hummingbird, sing to me.

Hummingbird, sing to me.

Rancho Santa Fe, CA

Rancho Santa Fe, CA

Becca, Life & What’s Ahead

Time for an update.
Let’s start with Becca… 

Two good things happened today. Becca got an encouraging call from her endocrinologist, and she went back to work. The endocrinologist has reviewed her body scan and informed us that the radioactive iodine was being soaked up only in the region of her neck. This means that it doesn’t look like the cancer has metastasized!

After the body scan last week Becca was able to start taking her daily dose of Synthroid, the replacement drug she will be on for the remainder of her earthly life. It hasn’t miraculously made her feel more energetic and healthy, but she doesn’t feel any worse either. Her doctor told us it would take a few weeks to see significant progress. Our hope is that after a couple of months Becca will feel more healthy and energetic than ever.

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Becca Update: Phase 2

Hello Friends,

Many of you have been asking about an update on Becca since my last post. Here’s where we are at today:

Becca had surgery on December 21st. Her entire thyroid was removed. Post-surgical pathology reports indicated that she had three nodules of cancer in her thyroid; one on the left side and two on the right. Cancer was also detected in one of her lymph nodes close to her thyroid.

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Atlantic Ocean | Sunset Beach, NC

Atlantic Ocean | Sunset Beach, NC