Selling Jesus

I have been reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller and I am really enjoying it. He speaks so openly about his experiences and thoughts about God. I appreciate the stories about his interactions with others. Some of the things in here are really getting me thinking and doing a little bit of convicting. Below is a little excerpt that I want to share.

The thing I loved about Nadine was that I never felt like she was selling anything. She would talk about God as if she knew Him, as if she had talked to Him on the phone that day. She was never ashamed, which is the thing with some Christians I had encountered. They felt like they had to sell God, as if He were soap or a vacuum cleaner, and it's like they really weren't listening to me; they didn't care, they just wanted me to buy their product. P.46

I think that sometimes the reason I am hesitant to talk to others about God is because I feel like I have to sell it. The truth is that I want to share my love for God and his love for me, but I don't really know how to explain it. Jesus is giving away grace for free and I act like that's a hard thing to let others know about. It shouldn't be.

I know it is a fear of not being able to convince others that He exists, even though I know He does. But my job is not to convince others. I am simply called to tell of God's love for his creation. There will always be people who can make a strong argument against God and those that can make a strong argument for God. I am not one of those people. I know about God through my interactions with Him, through His hand in my life, through the Bible. I do want others to experience God's love, but I don't always live in a way that shows that I feel His love. I am full of contradictions. I feel like I am rambling through this post. All I know is that I am a fraidy cat but I'm praying for courage and boldness so that my actions may mirror my desires and beliefs and that my love for God and His love for us may be evident to all.

I'll close with a few other morsels from the book.

I can't explain how freeing it was, to realize that if I met Jesus, He would like me. P.47

I think Laura was looking for something rational, because she believed that all things that were true were rational. But that isn't the case. Love, for example, is a true emotion, but it is not rational. What I mean is, people actually feel it. I have been in love, plenty of people have been in love, yet love cannot be proved scientifically. Neither can beauty. Light cannot be proved scientifically, and yet we all believe in light and by light see all things. There are plenty of things that are true that don't make any sense. I think one of the problems Laura was having was that she wanted God to make sense. He doesn't. He will make no more sense to me than I will make sense to an ant. P.54

The problem with Christian belief - I mean real Christian belief, the belief that there is a God and a devil and a heaven and a hell - is that it is not a fashionable thing to believe. P.107