after reading this book my view of God became bigger and more gracious mad more real. Donald takes an honest approach to his life with Christianity and life lessons- he writes in a story telling style which is easy to follow

A beautiful collection of plain spoken, honest thoughts about Christian life. This book was a breath of fresh air for my soul.

I kind of felt like I had to like it. I mean, a lot of what he said made sense, and I wanted to agree with him. But at the same time, I also felt like he was trying to make Christianity seem cool. However, the point of Christianity is not to be cool. Christianity opposes the actions of the world, Jesus opposed the actions of the world, which is why he was crucified. Christianity isn't like a store that tries to attract people. It's more like a hospital, in that it offers to help others, but sometimes in not-so-pleasant ways. Jesus shows us who we are, even the ugly stuff, and he promises to heal and restore us. He pardons us all the awful crimes we have committed, because God offers us love and grace and forgiveness, even after knowing what we are.

Also, I don't agree with his views of accommodating to culture so easily. From my understanding, he's a part of the Emergent Church, which isn't surprising to me, but disappointing. It's sad to see Christians who are choosing to listen to the cultural norms instead of God's Word. There are commandments in the Bible that we must keep, no matter what the culture. That includes ideals on marriage, on faith, etc. The political stance of a Christian is not important, not in matters of salvation. But we are called to be different from the world, to be lights. Also, the Bible is pretty clear that people are inherently evil. We are not good, and we are not capable of doing good, unless Christ lives in us.

That being said, I did like some points he made. I agreed with his views on loving others, and other things that I can't remember right now. He had some interesting insights, and I liked his honesty. But I did not agree with a lot of his theology. He was lacking a lot in the area of Scripture. Not only that, but a lot of what he wrote was just random nonsense. I didn't care about a lot of the stuff he wrote, and it seemed pointless to put it in his book.

Therefore, I am going to give this book one stars. It deserves one star because it's founded on his own thoughts, and not on a more solid basis. As a Christian book, it should be better.

Sometimes he wonders about the whole Jesus thing, sighs Miller in chapter one, giving us hope that a Christian author is about to dig into an earnest inter-faith discussion. Alas, it's a tease. He drops the religious doubt theme immediately and rather than objectively engaging Christianity, he begins using the names 'God' and 'Jesus' interchangeably throughout, the way a church-raised child would; he dismisses Islam as too 'trendy'; he thinks Buddhism is pretty cool like having a motorcycle, but he also indicates that being a Buddhist means rubbing a statue's belly for good luck.

I'm not exaggerating. He actually says all of these things. To cover all the bases, he quotes "Sarte" [sic].

Religious naivete and intellectual posturing aside, there's something even more deeply wrong about this book: what it says about its audience, mainstream American Christianity. There's something amiss about the way Miller congratulates himself and his urban Christian community that (gasp) gives sandwiches to the homeless and (OMG) protests the Iraq war.

I'm not saying those are bad things--quite the opposite. These are wonderful actions, things everyone should be doing. And--here's my point--exactly what Jesus told Christians to do. So why the amazement?

This is where the book is a little unusual for Christian fare. It does go beyond the usual soft stuff. And it says more than Miller intended. It is an accidental revelation on just how dead the whitewashed institution of American Christianity has become: acting like Jesus even in the most minimal way, is, to the church, revolutionary, dangerous, exciting, and totally alien.

Giving a sandwich to a bum is cause for breathless self-congratulation? Somewhere Jesus is shaking his head in disbelief.

Christians, if this book inspires you to get out and give food to the hungry, or stand up for peace, DO IT! That's great! But remember, someone else told you to do those things, thousands of years ago.

And without all the obnoxious navel-gazing.

A pretty good collection of essays about Christianity and spirituality. It isn't the best book (of the spiritual variety) I've read, and I wouldn't exactly agree with the byline that states "Nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality," but like I said, there was still some valuable insight to be found within.

I ended up really enjoying this!

It's exactly that the subtitle says: nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality.

I think this would resonate with a lot of people, Christian or not.

No wonder it's popular!

Not my first time reading this book, and not my last. I’ve always said, if I had to name an author who writes the way my brain works, it would be Donald Miller. His wrestling in this book to reconcile a broken world and a perfect God speaks to my own doubts and fears so well, leaving me to feel a little more seen and a little less alone every time I read it.

this book was both challenging & helpful !! i struggle a lot with imposter syndrome, especially in my faith. when I was most vocal about the gospel, I was also at my most fundamentalist. after years of figuring it out, I’ve found a good place with it—but it’s for sure more private now bc its sacred but also bc I dont want to ever be a damaging religious person (?)
life with Jesus & the hope of everything being restored is goated but how do I show up as a person who loves Jesus ! forever figuring it out and this book was helpful in that regard

Wow, just wow. This is really a 4.5 in my book. This book was truly beautiful and Donald Miller opened my eyes to so many new perspectives. I'm very encouraged to reach out to others and take what I have learned from this book and apply it to my own life. After finishing this, I seriously think everyone should read it at some point.


After re-reading: I can’t love this book more. Such beautiful writing.

“Too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to fouls, we deprive our hearts of wonder...And wonder is that feeling we get when we let go of our silly answers, our mapped out rules that we want God to follow.”

Dons perspective is refreshing! I had my doubts when starting this book but Don pulls you in and he doesn’t force things on you but tells you the truth !

Contrary to Miller's introduction, jazz music does resolve. A theme is introduced, the theme is played around with, unpacked, reimagined, and then resolved. (There are open-ended compositions, but jazz pieces often do resolve.) And the title and its repetition throughout the work bugged me to no end. Miller really latches on to this image and runs with it, but since the book is not about being sad or even about the color blue, it seems that he just fell in love with the simile and ran with it without good reason. It also seems a little faux-cool. Miller's writing throughout is trying too hard to be cool, but one of his theses, I think, was that a cool Christianity would win over converts. But cool can never be nailed down, is subject to the whims of fickle consumers, and is created by ad men. Cool is slight and ultimately meaningless. So Christianity can't and shouldn't try to be cool.

And why "non-religious thoughts" on "spirituality"? Ugh. Religion is not a defunct concept and spirituality is not preferable to Christianity. If these concepts are broken, then we should rehabilitate them not discard them. I understand that Miller is trying to appeal to the unchurched or those who have strayed from their faith, but he errs when he chooses the vague, unfocused spirituality over the focused, definable Christianity.

And yet, I would reservedly recommend this flawed book because I believe it will be of great use to many who have strayed from their faith and are not comfortable with what they assume to to be the Conservative, unforgiving church. I found the chapter's on selfishness and loneliness compelling. The book is flawed, but valuable and could be a useful means for (re)introducing the faith to those repelled by it.

This book was really good. I liked the way the author thought and I related to a lot of his ideas. Nothing about it blew me away, hence the three stars, but it was still very good.