Letter to Classmates

Here is my letter. I haven't finished the work-citing, so ignore that. There's still stuff I'm going to go over and touch up on, but this is basically it.


(How am I supposed to start this? Dear Classmates?)

“I think loving Jesus is something you feel,” writes Donald Miller (Miller 239). The fact that Miller believes feelings are an integral part of faith is supported throughout Blue Like Jazz. He uses phrases like “I felt love,” “I felt God,” and “I needed to feel forgiveness.” (Miller ?, ?, and 208) He repeatedly gives examples of times when he’s “felt” God and often shares how powerfully he feels love, forgiveness and loneliness – concepts usually listed as emotions. Over and over again, Miller links faith with feelings, meshing belief with emotion. How should this be interpreted? Are feelings a valid part of the Christian faith? The most common response I’ve heard to that question is no, feelings should be kept separate from faith; they are too unreliable to let influence our convictions. We shouldn’t let feelings determine what’s true just by what feels good, rather, our faith should be based on reason and fact, not emotion.

I’ve gotten the sense that some of you, my classmates, believe this, too. It seems that most of us, if not all, have been raised up in Christian homes with Christian beliefs and values, and I think that it is this Christian background that causes us to believe that feelings shouldn’t be a part of faith. Today, Christians seem to have a tendency to be wary of emotions. We tend to avoid basing our actions or convictions on what we feel. We get the sense, from evangelical leaders, especially, that emotions aren’t compatible with faith. Dr. Markus Bockmuehl writes in his commentary on Philippians that “Joy in the Lord is not a feeling but an attitude, and as such it can be positively commanded.” (Elliott 17) Pastor and author Dr. Erwin Lutzer tells us that “Divine love…is not a feeling.” (Elliott 16) Joyce Meyer writes that “If we lack understanding about the fickle nature of emotions, Satan can use them – or the lack of them – to keep us out of God’s will. I firmly believe that no person will ever walk in God’s will and ultimately in victory if he takes council with his emotions.” (Elliott 17) But what about Donald Miller’s “I think loving Jesus is something you feel”? Should we dismiss his statement as invalid and misinformed in light of those of more experienced Christians? I think not. I believe that Miller’s take on the issue is actually more valid than the others. I believe that, backed by the Bible, experience, and logic, faith is “something you feel.”

Though many Christians today believe feelings are something to be suppressed, the Bible teaches otherwise. Matthew Elliot, author of Feel: The Power of Listening to Your Feelings, found this to be true. While studying for his PhD in the religion department of University of Aberdeen, he began to study the “role of emotions in the Bible” (Elliott 10) Astonished, he found the Bible full of emotions. He writes that, “In all of these stories I was impressed by the prominent role that emotions played. Not only that, but these stories were about emotion – how people could taste the vibrant life they saw in Jesus. Everyone who encountered Jesus began to feel.” (Elliott 21) Elliott found that the Bible didn’t advocate suppressing emotion, rather, it presented emotion as a basic element of faith. Take the story of David dancing with abandon in the streets, praising God. He certainly didn’t suppress his feelings. His emotional response to the goodness of God was an integral part of his faith. (2 Samuel 6)Take Jesus, praying in Gethsemane before his death. He didn’t try to hide what he was feeling, telling himself that his feelings were wrong because they were contrary to God’s will. Rather, he poured out his anguish before God, letting him know that he really didn’t want to be crucified, but that he’d ultimately leave it to God whose will would be done. (Matthew 26) According to the Bible feelings, are not only compatible to faith, they are often a part of faith.

Okay, so people in Bible times often had faith-filled feelings. But do emotions have a place in faith today? The experiences of countless Christians answer yes. Every Sunday, my pastor gets so pumped up with love for Jesus that it’s basically busting his vocal chords. The worship minister at my church has been moved to tears while singing songs for his Savior. Miller writes about his friend Penny becoming a Christian. One night after hearing God speak to her, she went down on her knees and prayed for God to save her, to make her better. She said she felt the truth, that she “knew inside that He [Jesus] was God.” (Miller 49) Lee Strobel, once a strong skeptic, describes his conversion in The Case for Christ. He writes that, after thoroughly investigating Christianity, “I had to take a step of faith…What’s more, in an inner and inexplicable way, it was also what I sensed God’s Spirit was nudging me to do.” (Strobel 363) Accompanying his logical belief was one he could feel. I also have emotionally felt my faith. At times, for reasons I can’t logically explain, I have felt an overpowering sense of God’s presence. I know Jesus is real: I can feel it, even if I can’t explain it. I’m sure some of you as Christians have experienced this at some time. Faith and feelings complement each other, in the present as well as the past.

“We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) This could be paraphrased to “We live by faith, not by feelings.” Though feelings have their place in Christian belief, we can’t base our actions and convictions on them alone. Feelings are reactions, based on our beliefs, to situations; they don’t constitute beliefs in themselves. Elliot writes, “Sometimes our emotions are based on wrong knowledge. We often make the mistake of saying our emotions are wrong, when much of the time they’re perfectly right – just based on the wrong information.” (Elliot Article par. ?) Our feelings are usually trustworthy, but we must be sure that they are based on the right knowledge. This is why faith comes before feeling; you can’t feel about something – react to something – without something to inspire those feelings. So we can’t run on feelings alone. Fortunately, “God doesn’t tell us how to feel without telling us what truth to believe. He gives us the context in which to feel our emotions.” (Elliott article par. ?)

But although feelings without faith have little value, faith without feelings is still valid. Lack of feeling doesn’t invalidate truth. For example, I don’t always feel love for my little brother, but just because I don’t feel love doesn’t mean I don’t love him. My lack of feeling doesn’t negate my affection. In light of faith, James MacDonald writes that “Faith is believing the Word of God and acting upon it no matter how I feel.” (Elliott 17) We don’t always feel excited and joyful about our faith. Nevertheless, the Christian faith is still valid. Faith can still be genuine and powerful without emotional experiences. C.S. Lewis didn’t come to Christ by following his feelings; he came to Christ while trying to disprove Christianity. Mother Teresa, though she was following Christ wholeheartedly, didn’t always feel him (Van Biema par. ?) Yet she held to her faith and accomplished much. Reverend James Martin puts it this way: “Let’s say you’re married and you fall in love and you believe with all your heart that marriage is a sacrament. And your wife, God forbid, gets a stroke and she’s comatose. And you will never experience her love again…but you know on the deepest level that she loves you even though she’s silent and that what you’re doing makes sense. Mother Teresa knew that what she was doing made sense.” (VanBiema par. ?) Even when we don’t emotionally feel our faith, we can still know that it’s real and valid, you can still know that “what you’re doing makes sense.”

So, I would challenge you not to be afraid of feeling your faith. “[L]oving Jesus is something you can feel,” and, as long as they are based on the truth, letting your emotions be free will enhance your faith and make it “feel” more real.

Donald Miller and Cool Christianity

I've noticed a lot of people believe Donald Miller is trying to make Christianity cool and popular, something attractive and hip. I don't think he's trying to do this at all. He doesn't believe Christianity is cool and he doesn't try to make it cool. Read this:

"Even our beliefs have become trend statements. We don't even believe things because we believe them anymore. We only believe things becasue they are cool things to believe. The problem with Christian belief...is that it is not a fashionable thing to believe."

That's on page 107 of Blue Like Jazz. Now read this from page 111:

"[A friend of mine] says the [postmodern] church will be different from the old one, that we will be relevant to culture and the human struggle. I don't think any church has ever been relevant to culture, to the human struggle, unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His gospel. If the supposed new church believes in trendy music and cool Web pages, then it is not relevant to culture either. It is just another tool of Satan to get people to be passionate about nothing."

On the same page:

"Living for something extends beyond fashion."

Remember Trendy Writer? Miller was disgusted with his attempt to make spirituality cool. He talks about how Trendy Writer was mixing elements of "cool" religions in with Chrisitanity. "Trendy Writer was sending out Muhammed and Jesus, asking them to hold hands so nobody would have to feel wrong or, rather, so he could have something fashionable to believe."

I can't think of anywhere in Blue Like Jazz where Miller tries to make Christianity cool. In some places he portrays it as the opposite. Take the confession booth. At Reed college Christianity was not cool. But here are Miller and his friends, dressed up like monks and living out their faith. Take Donald Miller himself. He's not really a very cool person. He falls in love with Emily Dickenson, scrubs toilets when he's upset, and hangs out with hippies -uncool people. Miller is not very cool and he's a Christian.

Another thing I've noticed people believe is that Miller believes Christianity is all about 'feelings', that he thinks Christianity is only as real as it "feels". I don't believe he thinks this - that being a Christian is all about feeling good.

In the last chapter, Miller writes: "I think loving Jesus is something you feel." Notice he doesn't say that loving Jesus is only something you feel. He is saying that you can feel it. And isn't this true? Isn't God's love and God's presence something that can be felt? I've felt it. Miller isn't saying there isn't a rational and logical approach to Christianity; he's only describing one aspect of it - the "feeling" part.

Miller also doesn't say that Christianity is something that can always be felt. In chapter Seven he talks about how hard it was for him to feel grace. He says: "I would hear about grace, read about grace, and even sing about grace, but accepting grace is an action I could not understand...I wanted to feel as though I earned my forgiveness."

At the beginning of the next chapter, he talks about doubts. "I remember a specific time when I was laying there in bed thinking about the absurdity of my belief. God. Who believes in God? It all seems so very silly." He obviously wasn't "feeling" the faith then.

So, basically Miller is not trying to make Chrisitanity cool and he is not saying it is based on feelings. He is honest. He doesn't try to make things what they arene't but rather describes them as they are. Christianity is very real to him, and he responds by sharing it as just that.

Blue Like Jazz, once more.

"God's love will never change us if we don't accept it."

Chapter 19 of Blue Like Jazz was powerful to me. Through Donald Miller, it addressed some stuff I've been going through. Only I read it before I went through the stuff; it only hit me later.

I don't always love myself. I often beat myself up becasue I'm feeling like crap and I don't understand why and I think it's my fault I'm feeling so horrible. So I bang myself around and I'm so concerned with being un-loving towards myself that I am unable to love others. It's kind of hard to see others when you're focused on yourself.

Miller said that he "wouldn't recieve love because it felt so wrong. It didn't feel humble, and I knew I was supposed to feel humble. But that was all crap, and it didn't make sense. If it is wrong for me to recieve love, then it is also wrong for me to give it becasue by giving it I am causing somebody else to receive it, which I had pre-supposed was the wrong thing to do. So I stopped."

God doesn't want me to hate myself. He defines my value, not me, and he tells me I am worth loving. God loves me! And if he does it, it's gotta be okay to do too.