Before the World Race I wanted to get a book that would really speak to me this year and that would also challenge me in big ways. When I went to the local christian bookstore I asked the lady working there to recommend me a book. She said she had the perfect book for me and handed me, “Blue Like Jazz”. I had been recommended this book many times before but had never read it. I figured now is the time and was happy with my purchase.
This past month I decided to pick up the book and start reading it. To be completly honest I’m not a huge reader because I find most books boring or they just don’t speak to me. But so far, “Blue Like Jazz”, has blown my mind. Donald Miller does an amazing job challenging people to the ideas I have had for so long. He challenges everyone to think outside the box which I love.
In the book Donald tells a story that really changed his mindset on being charity. He was in the grocery store checkout line and the lady in front of him had food stamps. He hadn’t seen food stamps before but it made him and the chasher a little uncomfortbale because they felt bad for the lady, bad that she was charity. H keep thinking about how he was glad that it wasn’t him and all he wanted to do is to pay for her grocery’s even though they were paid by the government. If he only paid for her grocerys then it wouldnt be as embarassing for her. After he left the store God really convicted him and allowed him to make the connection towards God’s grace. The fact that God’s grace is his chraity to us. Jesus died on the cross to forgive us of our sins, that was his grace. Although we were sinner we were forgiven by a perfect God because he loves us. The fact is that we are to prideful to accept his grace. It made him reevaluate his life and allowed God to teach him how to be charity.
I have learned from reading “Blue Like Jazz”, how important it is for us as christians to be charity just like the lady was in the grocery store. The Lord wants to take care of us, he wants to provide for us, and he wants us to have total dependence on him but we are stuborn. We try to do life on our own without him and we think we can provide for ourselves. The truth is we need the Lord. We need the charity he so generously has given us with his grace. Just like sucking up my pride and accepting the gift the people here (in Puerto Barrios) have given I in the same way need to completly accept the gift the Lord has given us by dying on the cross. We are the charity and we need him.
