I've been reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. It has been a wonderful book for me and in many ways I feel like I should just quote the whole book here as the journal of my life. It is a refreshing drink to my soul. Here is one small excerpt...
"More than my questions about the efficacy of social action were my questions about my own motive. Do I want social justice for the oppressed or do I want to be known as a socially active person...? I spend 95% of my time thinking about myself anyway. I don't have to watch the evening news to see that the world is bad, I only have to look at myself. I am not browbeating here; I am only saying that true change, true life-giving, God-honoring change would have to start with the individual. I was the very problem that I had been protesting. I wanted to make a sign that read, "I AM THE PROBLEM!
"That night I rode my motorcycle...I went there to try and get my head around this idea, this idea that the problem in the universe lives within me. I can't think of anything more progressive than to embrace of this fundamental idea."
Oh, how true!
3 comments:
Thanks Bret for this post. How true it is.
It is strange, in some form of irony, I have found that admitting I am the problem, that I am a weak unable person, doing what I wish others would not do, has actually helped free me from me. When I finally admit who I am, I can begin to move beyond me, and into what He, made me to be. It is like I finally realize I can't and I turn to a power greater than me that can. In that moment the Bible comes alive. I realize it is true, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I realize as Paul said, "when I am weak I am strong."
BP,
I read this book back in June, and despite the fact that I totally loved it, my journal only received one line about it: "GREAT BOOK -- It was like the guy was in my head."
So yeah, sounds like you had a similar experience
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