Posts Tagged ‘blue like jazz’
Things I Like [7]
Posted on: September 23, 2011
I love reading. I don’t do it as often as I should, but I love getting lost in a story, fiction or non-fiction…I love reading people’s stories. I prefer story books, whether you are telling me someone else’s story or your own. I don’t so much like self-help books or teaching books.
Anyway, my top 3 books: (click on pic to find out more about the book)
The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborn
The Shack by William Young
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
(first 44 pages of blue like jazz available to read online)
Some authors I really dig:
Stephen King (IT, Carrie, The Shining, etc - fiction, horror)
John Grisham (An Innocent Man, The Client, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, etc - fiction, law)
Jeff Lucas (Lucas out Loud, Lucas on Life, How not to pray, Grace choices) - humour, christianity
Thoughts on singleness revisited
Posted on: February 1, 2011
- In: my life | thoughts
- 4 Comments
“want to find romance? commit to asking a girl out once a week (talk to henry cloud if you think that’s too much) or, if you’re a girl, put yourself on a dating site on the internet and say yes when you get asked out” – don miller
i read that and thought “don, are you out of your mind?”.
i then posted it as my facebook status and got the following comment from val (of tbv fame): “a couple of months before starting to go out with brett i decided that i was actually going to start saying ‘yes’ to dates – even if i thought it really wouldn’t work or i wouldn’t enjoy it…it was good for me to a. start giving guys chances, b. get over the fear of awkwardness on a date, c. realise that a date was not saying i wanted to marry the guy (i.e. i kissed dating hello!) i did go on some very awkward dates and had some times of literally having nothing to say to each other, and said yes to what i thought were dates but later turned out not to be and that was hard and dissapointing and i got hurt…BUT, when brett asked me out, i said yes even though a couple months before i would have said no because 1. he was way older and 2. i was nervous. and that didn’t turn out too badly”
and for those who don’t know them, when she says “didn’t turn out too badly” she means “we ended up getting married and being all happy and couply and making T think ‘aw, i want that’”… 
my friend Andy then commented “I definitely agree with Don Miller! It makes sense. To find ‘romance’ one needs to be in contact with members of the other sex, and that’s not going to happen if you shut yourself off from meeting those members.” and seeing that Andy has been in a relationship for like, i don’t know, 10 years with her boyfriend – including a year of long distance – i think she probably knows what she’s talking about when it comes to relationships.
3 short months ago, i wrote this post. and i meant every word of what i said. even that part with all the senarios which lead me to hate being single. what i failed to mention was that i was totally thinking of a specific person when i wrote those. so yea, i was, and am still, in this weird “i love being single but…” mode because of him.
anyway, in blue like jazz – which i absolutely loved! – don miller says something like (i’m too lazy to get the book so i’ll just paraphrase) “if you like a girl you should let her know. even if she doesn’t feel the same way, you’ll never regret stepping up. i’ve also learned that if the girl says she doesn’t like you back you should stop riding your bike past her house”. lol. anyway, does that apply to girls as well? if you like a boy, should you let him know? i’m not saying ask the guy out, just, you know, let him know that you are interested, and if he’s also interested then his interest would be welcome…or something…
so, should i tell the guy? or should i just sign up for an internet dating site?
living with strangers
Posted on: November 30, 2010
- In: blog carnival | my life
- 4 Comments
they say to watch the company you keep because you tend to become them or something. i always try to surround myself with good people, and i think i’ve done very well so far. god has brought some super awesome people into my life.
sometime this year i was going through some hectic spiritual stuff – lots of doubt, which i’d never really experienced before – so it was really scary, but the people from church helped me through it.
str
a few years ago i read donald miller’s blue like jazz and shane claiborne’s irresistible revolution and fell in love with the idea of living in community. i decided then that i didn’t want to live alone anymore – at that point i was living in a batchelor flat all by my lonesome. anyway, the following year i moved in with my friend lindri and that was really good. i think i needed that transition of moving in with just one person first to get me out of my “bubble” space mentality…and it was a really huge bubble. anyway, by the end of the year i was so used to lindri coming to my door all the time to talk that i’d so miss it when she wasn’t around. i got to a point where i didn’t just put up with being around people but i actually wanted and craved to be around other people.
the next year i moved in with 2 strangers. even more growth. atleast with lindri we’d been friends before we moved in together so i kinda knew what to expect but with these new flatmates i knew nothing. i only met them once i’d already moved in. and although there were some disagreements here and there – mostly about housekeeping: washing the dishes, cleaning the bathroom, etc etc – it was a really cool group of people so it all worked out in the end.
i just moved into a new house last week that i will be sharing with 4 other people – eek. 4 stragers. i lucked out though because they all seem like genuinely great people and we get along quite well. i actually went away with one of them this past weekend – after only knowing her for a week – to a music festival…she’s also a fan of music and dancing – yayness!
i think my biggest problem this year is going to be being farther away from my church people, especially since my flatmates aren’t Christians. i think i took that for granted while i had it. lind would always come to my room when she got something new from the bible and share it with me and we’d have hectic chats on the Bible and God and pray for each other and stuff. and last year, while that didn’t happen, knowing that my flatmates where Christians and being close to my friends whom i could always call on for coffee and a chat when i was feeling down or whatever was really encouraging.
i think church attendance and cell group are going to play an even bigger role in my life next year. i’m gonna be more dependent on that christian fellowship. and i’m gonna try to remember not to take it for granted but to really appreciiate it.
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this post was written for the one word at a time blog carnival. this week’s theme is “fellowship”. Click here to read other posts from some awesome bloggers.
C. S. Lewis
Posted on: November 12, 2010
- In: from others
- 1 Comment
All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through;
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.
Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin;
I talk of love – a scholar’s parrot may talk Greek -
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.
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This is a poem by C. S. Lewis…don’t know the name. Came across it in Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz. I love it…and hate it…cos it rings too true. Do I really believe the things I say? Or like a parrot, do I simply just regurgitate the things I’ve heard?
