Sunday, January 12, 2014

Blue Like Jazz

I checked out books from the library. I think I'm going to bring these lists in with me next time and get these books:

http://sarahbessey.com/in-which-i-share-10-books-that-changed-my-faith/


I saw the book Blue Like Jazz and remembered it being on the list. Because it's a library book, I can't write in it. So I just typed out quotes I liked for me to reference later. It's hard to describe this book, it's unlike any book I've ever read. 

"Somehow I had come to believe that because a person is in need, they are candidates for sympathy, not just charity. It was not that I wanted to buy her groceries, the government was already doing that. I wanted to by her dignity. And yet, by judging her, I was the one taking her dignity away....I love to give to charity, but I don't want to be charity. This is why I have so much trouble with grace."

"If we hear, in our inner ear, a voice saying 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."

"Stop ten people on the street and ask them what they think of when they hear the word Christianity, and they will give you ten different answers. How could I defend a term that means ten different things to ten different people? I told the radio show host that I would rather talk about Jesus and how I came to believe Jesus exists and that he likes me."

"I listened to hard because it felt like, while she was telling me stories, she was massaging my soul, letting me know I was not alone, that I will never have to be alone, that there are friends and family and churches and coffee shops. I was not going to be cast into space."

"I think a person who is lonely should dig into a community, give himself to a community, humble  himself before his friends, initiate community, teach people to care for each other, love each other....Jesus wants us interacting, eating together, laughing together, praying together."

"The real issue in the Christian community was that it was conditional. You were loved, but if you had questions, questions about whether the Bible was true or whether America was a good country or whether last week's sermon was good, you were not so loved."


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