by Cory Woodroof | Apr 11, 2012 | Opinion
Blue Like Jazz is a rarity. Once in a blue moon, the Christian base in Hollywood will strike lightning in a bottle, producing a satisfying look at faith and religion through unfiltered eyes. More often than not, audiences are served up a fresh bowl of faith-based pabulum – be it in the form of a “Kendrick brothers original” (Facing the Giants, Fireproof) or another off-brand copycat you might find at the local Redbox. Films made by the faithful often lack any bite. The projects are too focused on being happy, inoffensive and resolved. The end result is harmless, but a typical Sunday morning sermon usually finds greater success. This past August, golf-centric melodrama Seven Days in Utopia succeeded in slightly rising above the genre, providing a decently endearing story while staying within the confines of the churchyard. Having a cast featuring Robert Duvall and Melissa Leo didn’t hurt. Still, I wondered when the right movie would come along at the right time to finally put an end to the usually languished faith-based fare. I wondered when a filmmaker would be bold enough to portray the daily walk of a Christian without a coating of fresh sugar. Blue Like Jazz, adapted from Donald Miller’s best-selling memoir, finally offers Christian audiences a film they can be proud of – a journey into faith and life through the eyes of a scarred believer. Don Miller (Marshall Allman) stands as the example of the perfect Bible-belt Christian until a horrid discovery sends him from his Texas home to Oregon’s Reed College, a super-secular institution based in free expression. Miller begins to struggle with...
by Emily Snell | Jan 20, 2012 | News Slider
Donald Miller, Christian author and speaker, gave students his “rules to living a meaningful life” in The Gathering on Thursday. “The things it takes to live a good story are the same things it takes to live an interesting life,” Miller said, explaining that he learned a lot about storytelling while working with experts to produce the movie version of his book Blue Like Jazz, which will appear in theaters April 13. Miller said people have the ability to choose to live an interesting, enjoyable life or a boring, meaningless one. “The things that we’re doing with our lives actually shape whether or not we appreciate it,” he said. According to Miller, the first step toward living an interesting life is “you need to want something.” Miller said the reason people get bored during movies is the same reason they feel that life is meaningless–it’s unclear what the protagonist wants. “If I paused your life right now,” Miller asked, “and came to your closest friends and asked, ‘Ok, what do they want?’ Would anybody know?” Miller said he thinks people believe they have to want only God’s specific plan for their lives. But, Miller said he believes God doesn’t always have a detailed plan but allows people to choose what they do with their lives. He said too many people view God as “a dysfunctional dad who is controlling.” “I just see this picture of God as a dad, and He rolls out this big piece of butcher paper on the floor and He gives you a box of crayons,” Miller said, sharing his perspective. “And you and God get to...
by Danielle Boyd | Jan 20, 2012 | Uncategorized
Well known Christian author and speaker Donald Miller challenged his audience to contemplate this question when he spoke at Lipscomb Wednesday night: “Why do we not see Jesus?” Miller, who led a discussion entitled “Where in the world is Jesus?” in Collins Alumni Auditorium, travels around the world to speak at universities, sharing his faith through real life experiences. Answering his own question, Miller said, “The reason we don’t see Christ in the world is because we are not bringing Christ in the world.” Miller said the people of Christ must allow their faith to manifest itself in their daily activities. Miller, the author of Blue Like Jazz, which was a New York Times bestseller in 2002, and several other books, visited Lipscomb two years ago and jokingly said he wanted to pick up the discussion from where he left off previously. Miller challenged the audience with a deeper self-contemplation on the reasons “why we can’t recognize Jesus.” Miller said the first issue is that “God is not attractive (in an American culture).” He supported this idea with the Biblical text in Isaiah 53:2-3 (NIV). “He grew up like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” The second point Miller made is that “Jesus in not helping us to win validation in a...
