Blue Like Jazz – Don Miller
Chapter 17 – Worship
It comforts me to think that if we are created beings, the thing that created us would have to be greater than us, so much greater, in fact, that we would not be able to understand it. It would have to be greater than the facts of our reality, and so it would seem to us, looking out from within our reality, that it would contradict reason. But reason itself would suggest it would have to be greater than reality, or it would not be reasonable. (pg.201)
I was talking to a homeless man at a laundry mat recently, and he said that when we reduce Christian spirituality to math we defile the Holy. Many of our attempts to understand Christian faith have only cheapened it. I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the complexity of me. The little we do understand, that grain of sand our minds are capable of grasping, those ideas such as God is good, God feels, God loves, God knows all, are enough to keep our hearts dwelling on His majesty and otherness forever. (pg.202)
Here is what I’ve started thinking: All the wonder of God happens right above our arithmetic and formula. The more I climb outside my pat answers, the more invigorating the view, the more my heart enters into worship. (pg.203)
There are things you cannot understand, and you must learn to live with this. Not only must you learn to live with this, you must learn to enjoy this. (pg. 205)
Needless to say I really enjoyed this chapter. This is something that I have come to realize in the last 3 months. And it has given me so much more awe for God. Someone at camp said something that will stick with me, “Isn’t that the awesome thing about Christianity? There is no way we could ever understand everything about our God. No human could make this up. Because no human understands it all.” The awesomeness of God and my faith. How could I ever question God and think He doesn’t know what he is doing with my life. He made the earth, He made the stars, He made fish, tiny fish, none the same, each one unique. Of course He knows what he’s doing. Who am I to question that?
