Blue Like Jazz

I know that most people want resolve in their lives and not ongoing battles. I’m not sure whether most in today’s church understand their own brokenness. We are so quick to fix anything with our Pastor’s simple 1-2-3’s. The reality is that most of us pretend that we aren’t broken and obviously don’t need any fix. Anne and I had a busy weekend with doing dinner with some great friends, doing a painting blitz, going out to a movie with our daughter and then as normal church on Sunday nights.

I had decided to go see the movie, Blue Like Jazz, which is from Don Miller’s book, Blue Like Jazz.  As we are watching the movie, which is an overview of a kid that grew up, in a very conservative church without a dad, it struck me how far out the church might be from ‘normal’ life or how off base the world has become. I hadn’t really thought about the impact this movie might have on my daughter or me.

The backdrop to the movie is that this high school grad is deciding what to do about college. His church gives him a scholarship and special going away party at church that was enough to push away most Christians forget real pagans. I know that Miller definitely exaggerated some of his feelings towards the church. I have no idea about the relationship between his mom and the youth pastor was true. Yet, all of this pushed Miller to trash going to a Bible College and with his father’s help he attends the most liberal and one of the most intellectually challenging universities.

The story in the movie revolves around his journey on campus of totally throwing out his religion and embracing paganism. He goes from being that Bible Thumping Youth Leader to a binge partier who ultimately becomes the sacrilegious leader on campus. It is amazing to see how he learns how to accept people right where they exist. I doubt whether his church would have understood his friendship with his Lesbian friend or his guy friend who had been molested as a young child by a priest. The story presents life as confusing and more hurt centered than grace centered.

I know many Christian families are concerned about protecting their kids from the evil pagan empire in our society. We tend to insulate and isolate our kids from the real world and do them a disservice by not preparing them for life in 2012 not 1950 with Leave it to Beaver. I did appreciate Reed College’s way of throwing you into the midst of the human dilemma and force you to struggle with how do we find resolve for the conflict of life?

I think most of us would confess to doing some rather crazy stuff as kids just to see if we would get a reaction from those around us. I know that as a teen who came to Christ outside the typical church that I didn’t have the baggage or experience of churchiness that most within the church experience. I guess the Jesus that we have created to be the nice guy type isn’t capable of standing up to the Christopher Hitchens or Samuel Dawkins of the world.

The real point of the movie is that there is genuine hurt, anguish and lostness on all college campuses. Everyone is searching for a resolve to the conflict of their life story. Miller, who wrote the book about his journey, is the one who is torn between the liberal dad who loves Jazz and the syrupy mom that plays church and ends up pregnant from the Youth Pastor. Neither has presented a resolve to his life conflict. Where do I find meaning and love? The academic answer to this question leaves most in outer space floating aimlessly around. The pat answers from the church world don’t work because the Jesus or God that has been fabricated can’t handle foul language, smoking, drinking or pregnant teens.

What continues to strike me is my need to be honest about my brokenness and how the Bible is a collection of stories of others who are just as messed up. There isn’t the perfect Bible Character or Hero to lift up. Everyone has their problems, which forces us to seek not for musical resolve but real redemption. My hero over the weekend was a retired friend who has become my painting expert. He has now helped paint 6 houses and is an amazing servant who doesn’t complain much but has a smile on his face as he paints. He loves to clean up his sprayer after doing a house and takes all the time in the world to do an awesome job.

I will never forget last Christmas listening to his wife say how George had come to better understand grace and mercy through helping paint.  Margie, his wife, came up to me and said, “You think all you do is about helping kids but really what you have done has helped change my husband’s life.” I know that George’s friend John, who is a younger recent retiree, echoes the same thing.  I know that it is too easy to sugar coat life and miss out on how God is in the business of cleaning up really ‘crappy’ messes.

As we are finishing painting one of my young leaders comes up and is honest about his life. We are talking about relationships with our spouses and he echoes how easy it is to get edgy or lose it on occasion with those who we are closest. Our point was that life is a journey that requires ongoing ‘tweaking’ and that there isn’t any way to totally fix brokenness in this life. I need a daily dose of grace and mercy for me to be that way to others. We or I should say I’m totally self-absorbed and it is too easy to believe that the world should revolve around me, myself and I.

I do believe that we all share a common thread in our life stories where there is going to be a climax that God will use to get our attention with the potential of true resolve for our conflict in life.  I’m not much into Jazz because I am the 60’s rocker type that met Jesus through some former hippie types. Yet, I believe that most of the rock of the 60’s and 70’s dealt with our reaction to the pat answers of our parents who grew up in a Leave it to Beaver Culture.