#14 Thing I Love: Blue Like Jazz

Blue Like Jazz is a book on Christian spirituality by Donald Miller. Normally, I wouldn't really be interested in something like this. I don't necessarily like authors who preach, and hearing about conservative ways of looking at Christianity. I purchased the book a few years ago because I heard of it's motivation that it provided Renee, the girl behind my favorite organization To Write Love on Her Arms.

I bought the book with full intention to see what the hype was all about. Naturally, school and other things got in the way, so I never got around to it. This past summer I was convinced to read it, finish it, and enjoy it. Yes, I was going to force myself to enjoy it.

Little did I know that this book wasn't just a preacher forcing spirituality down your throat. It's a man with struggles, and doubts. He has friends with problems. He has vices and issues that make him human. A humble writer who has really lived life to the fullest. A man who loves Jesus.

He doesn't really tell what his denomination is, but he intelligently goes through his faith and really examines it.

Miller does so with humor and stories of his own life, that make the reader really relate to him and connect their own faith with the stories and experiences he and his friends have had.

It didn't really take me long to finish reading Blue Like Jazz. I enjoyed the way he spoke about being a Christian, and I really identified with it. I never thought I'd enjoy a book that talks about faith in such depth. I was fascinated with his ideas, insights, and the way that he immersed himself in a culture of opening up and really discussing the bottom line of his faith.

Some of my favorite quotes:

"Believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon."

"...sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself..."

""I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.

After that I liked jazz music. "

" I will give you this, my love, and I will not bargain or barter any longer. I will love you, as sure as He has loved me. I will discover what I can discover and though you remain a mystery, save God's own knowledge, what I disclose of you I will keep in the warmest chamber of my heart, the very chamber where God has stowed Himself in me. And I will do this to my death, and to death it may bring me.
I will love you like God, because of God, mighted by the power of God. I will stop expecting your love, demanding you love, trading for your love, gaming for your love. I will simply love. I am giving myself to you, and tomorrow I will do it again. I suppose the clock itself will wear thin its time before I am ended at this altar of dying and dying again.
God risked Himself on me. I will risk myself on you. And together, we will learn to love, and perhaps then, and only then, understand this gravity that drew Him, unto us."

""Dying for something is easy because it is associated with glory. Living for something is the hard thing. Living for something extends beyond fashion, glory, or recognition. We live for what we believe."

"Writers don't make any money at all. We make about a dollar. It is terrible. But then again we don't work either. We sit around in our underwear until noon then go downstairs and make coffee, fry some eggs, read the paper, read part of a book, smell the book, wonder if perhaps we ourselves should work on our book, smell the book again, throw the book across the room because we are quite jealous that any other person wrote a book, feel terribly guilty about throwing the schmuck's book across the room because we secretly wonder if God in heaven noticed our evil jealousy, or worse, our laziness. We then lie across the couch facedown and mumble to God to forgive us because we are secretly afraid He is going to dry up all our words because we envied another man's stupid words. And for this, as I said, we are paid a dollar. We are worth so much more."

"The most difficult lie I have ever contended with is this: life is a story about me."

"Everybody wants to be fancy and new. Nobody wants to be themselves. I mean, maybe people want to be themselves, but they want to be different, with different clothes or shorter hair or less fat. It's a fact. If there was a guy who just liked being himself and didn't want to be anybody else, that guy would be the most different guy in the world and everybody would want to be him."

-Catherine

#15 Thing I Love: Learning About Different Religions

As it's been noted previously, I consider myself a pretty faithful person. My background is Roman Catholic, and I consider myself to be a fairly liberal Catholic. Do I believe in abortion? No, not for myself. Do I believe that homosexuals should get married? Yes.
I don't agree with everything the Catholic church has to offer. However, I love it.
In all honesty, if the Jesuits had their own entire religion revolved around Catholic Social Teaching and social justice...that's what I would be. My experience at St. Joe's has really opened my mind up to that.

For a few years I have gone back and forth about whether or not I really am a Catholic since I differ in some ways. I also love the idea of contemporary Christian worship. Running interdenominational camps like I do with Group Workcamps Foundation doesn't really help this inner debate.

Despite my love for Catholic Social Teaching...I love learning about other denominations and religions other than Christianity. This past semester, for example, I took a course about Judaism, and I absolutely loved it.

There's something amazing to see how other people worship God, or to see what they believe in. Religion is a powerful thing to have in this world. It has caused wars, destroyed countries, and has also saved so many lives. It gives people meaning and hope in this crazy world. However, everyone has a different way of praying and finding a faith of their liking. It's beautiful to see and learn these things. I believe that learning about a different religion or different denomination gives one a new feeling of grace and pride in their own religion. Having to explain or defend Catholicism to those of a different denomination is a beautiful thing because we find so much in common and come to understandings. It is like a way of restoring peace and erasing judgements that we all have about other faiths that have differing opinions from our own.

God bless, or whoever you believe in...
-Cat

#16 Thing I Love: My Summer Job

So this summer, and last summer, I have had the amazing opportunity to work for a wonderful organization: Group Workcamps Foundation.

What is it? http://groupworkcamps.com/Workcamps/Pages/default.aspx
-Basically youth groups from all over the country invade a community, live on air-mattresses in classrooms of a local school, and do home repair for needy families in that community.

What do I do? http://groupworkcamps.com/Workcamps/Pages/SummerStaffintroduction.aspx
-I'm part of a crew of 4 (there are several crews) who travel together all summer in a Ryder Truck and a Chevy Cobalt...we go to different places to set up these amazing camps. We all have different positions...mine is Office Manager.

Last summer this job took me to Rocky Mount-VA, Sullivan-IL, Baltimore-MD
This summer I've been to Coshocon-OH, Indianapolis-IN, Winston-Salem-NC
Not to mention our two week training period in Estes Park, Colorado (which we drive back to at the end of the summer), and the travel time in between camps.

Basically, I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend summer...traveling, serving people, meeting new people, and growing in my faith.

if you want to know more: http://summerstaffing.blogspot.com/
-Cat

#19 Thing I Love: Happier by A Fine Frenzy

So I love everything by A Fine Frenzy. Her first album was phenomenal. Her next album "Bomb in a Birdcage" is just as good, but with more variety.
She rightly picked the first single to be "Happier". What I love about this song is that it is not what you expect at first glance. When you listen to it you can't help but be in a "happy" mood. After all the song is called "happier". The tune is just catchy. However, then you look at the lyrics...and it's not really all that happy. I love it. Obviously, A Fine Frenzy wasn't the first to use this little switch, but it still cracks me up. My emotions get so confused when I listen to this song hahah.

"Quick kid quick, so harsh and cynical
Touches stricken, cold and clinical
What a transformation to behold
But I don't like this new, I want the old

It's not the words that make it final
You've said such things such things before to rival them
But it's how you say 'em now that's changed
Cold but sympathetic all the same

Lie to convince me that I'll be better off
Oh, you go on and I'll be happier, I'll be happier
You go on, yeah, you go on
You'll be gone and I'll be happier

Shoot me with your rubber bullets
Your finger's on the trigger, pull it
I know you want this suffering to end
So it is forgivable my friend

It's all to convince me that I'll be better off
So you go on and I'll be happier,
You go on and I'll be happier
You go on, yeah, you go on
You'll be gone and I'll be happier

Bo-bo-ba-do-bo
Bo-bo-ba-do-bo-da-da-da

Say what you mean, what you mean
Cause you'll be happier without me, without me, without me, oh

You won't convince me, that I'll be better off
So you go on and I'll be happier, I'll be happier
You go on, you go
You'll be gone, and I'll be gone
You go on and I'll be happier, you go on and I'll be happier
You go on, you go on, you go on and I'll go on and I'll be happier
You on and I'll be happier, you go on and I'll be happier

You go on, and I'll be happier"

#23 Thing I Love: The Shack

So around Christmas time, I read a book entitled "The Shack". This was when the book first began it's popularity. I had heard about it through Hayley Williams' blog and I was very intrigued by the summary on the back of the book. I must admit, despite finding the topic of faith and religion interesting to discuss, I never seem to like reading about it. I feel that some authors can be a little on the preachy side, but William Paul Young's interpretation of a man who has been through great sadness in his life and his encounter with the three versions of God was one of the greatest books I've ever read.

Here are some quotes:

Papa: “The problem is that many folks try to grasp some sense of who I am by taking the best version of themselves, projecting that to the nth degree, factoring in all the goodness they can perceive, which often isn’t much, and then call that God. And while it may seem like a noble effort, it falls pitifully short of who I really am. I’m not merely the best version of you that you can think of. I am far more than that, above and beyond all that you can ask or think” (98).

Sarayu: “Both evil and darkness can only be understood in relation to Light and Good; they do not have any actual existence. I am Light and I am Good. I am Love and there is no darkness in me. Light and Good actually exist. So, removing yourself from me will plunge you into darkness. Declaring independence will result in evil because apart from me, you can only draw upon yourself. That is death because you have separated from me: Life” (136).

Sarayu: “Mack, if anything matters than everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again” (235)

#24 Thing That I Love: Jerry MaGuire

Alright, let's be serious. What's not to love about a movie with a pre-crazy Scientology and Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise. Cuba Gooding Jr. in let's face it, his probably only good career move. And a younger, more girl next door Renee Zellweger. Add that cute little kid with the glasses who has a froggy voice, and you got movie magic.

When I was younger and saw it for the first time...the only cool thing about it was that it had curse words and I felt bad ass watching it. However, it was on sale for $5 in Wal-Mart, and I couldn't help but buy it...and I basically fell in love with it.
First, you have a guy who is realizing his job is to lie to people, and basically take their money...and he realizes it's wrong...just a good message.
Second, the same guy has never had a true relationship in his life...and he's exposed to the love his client Rod Tidwell shows to his wife and family, and then to this little innocent boy Ray, son of Dorothy (Zellweger). Dorothy happens to be madly in love with him.
Besides having some great lines..."You had me at hello" anyone? The movie is just a feel good show at human nature and this guy finally starting his life over again in his thirties, with a whole new outlook.

Also for years I could always quote that whole "You complete me" part, but I never realized the significance until I rewatched it the other day. In one of the first scenes between Jerry and Dorothy they are in an elevator with a hearing impaired couple, and the guy signs to his girlfriend. When the couple leaves Jerry jokingly goes.."Wonder what he said" (after all the couple was making out so he probably assumed it was something dirty) to which Dorothy replies, "My aunt is hearing impaired...he said 'You complete me'." I never noticed that the line had appeared before.

Finally, what's not to love about a movie that has an amazing Bruce Springsteen song as its theme.

25 Things I Love

So I'm stealing this from Tara-Leigh Cobble, who stole this from somebody. Each blog is a "countdown" of 25 of my favorite things. Nothing is in order, and they're just small things that either we take for granted or little known things that I'd like people know about.

# 25 Thing That I Love:
Found Magazine (http://foundmagazine.com/about)

This site is so much fun. It's actually the site that inspired Frank Warren to start his PostSecret blog. Peopl can send little notes, photographs, drawings, or whatever, that they randomly find. It is then posted on the site and interpreted. Some of the stuff found on there can be as small or insignificant as a drawing a kid drew, or a family photograph that got tossed aside...but to someone it means or meant the world.


Some of my favorite "finds":









These are just 2 that put a smile on my face. Of course, some of them are a lot more serious, but interesting and a great way to spend some time when you're bored!