A response to a book

Some random responses I had while reading Blue Like Jazz. (And if you haven't read it you may get a bit lost, so I apologize.) Is there a difference between, or can we as failed humans walk the line between judging someone and holding them accountable for their behavior? Miller is makes a statement, and I feel like it is a reaccuring theme throughtout the book, that once he let go of his judgement and just loved it changed his life and the lives of those around him, pg 221 says " that my part was to communicate love and approval." So I was thinking about this, as it appeared to me that many of the circumstances he found himself in called for some sort of critical evaluation of appropriateness. Which perhaps he thought about but didn't communicate them in his book. I wondered about what the Bible teaches us. Proverbs 15 vs 31-33 tells us that "He who disdains instruction despises his own soul...." Proverbs 18 also speaks about fools raging against all wise judgement. God wants us to be about love, but from what I read He also wants us to be about accountability- which helps us be more like Him if we have wise council holding us accountable. As Miller tells his various stories throughout his book, I feel like he completely ignores his responsiblity as a Christian to his brothers and sisters.

I also had a strong response to something that Miller says on page 225 of his book. "I wish everybody could spend four years in a place like that, being taught the truth, that they matter regardless of their faults, regardless of their insecurities." Ok great. Had a secular person said this I would not have even thought twice. But Miller is a believer. So for me at least that changes things. Is that fair, I don't know, it just is what it is. The thing is that through the awesome Word of Jesus we are taught that we matter. I have a problem with someone comparing a very liberal, practically all anti-God school to the church and calling Reed the better of the two. The Church is made up of humans, and we suck. Thank you Adam and Eve for the sins that have defined us all. Thank You Jesus for redefining us in You. What Miller doesn't seem to get is that (as my 40 Acres so poetically states) "happiness does not equal blessing." Those kids at Reed may be carefree and happy, the hippies in the woods may be freeloving without a care in the world, but they are not blessed, because they do not know Jesus. Their moral code is mostly defined by themselves and the devil. Now I know that this is a slight exaggeration-this country was built basically on a Biblical moral code, and Romans 2 says that the truth is written on each of our hearts. So we all have that going for us. But if Miller finds that he is more likely to be taught that he matters at a college like Reed than at his church-maybe he should re-evaluate what they are teaching at his church. We all matter. Jesus loves each one of us, and He loved us first. Amazing. Brilliant. That love means to me that I matter. The King of Kings calls me (and you) beloved. What I find lacking in Blue like Jazz is this very truth. I respect a man's right to put on paper his candid thoughts and experiences, but as Believers I think we have a responsibility not to glorify what is not Godly. My impression from the book is that he is doing just that. Glorifying the ungodly. Have any of you readers read On the Road by Jack K.? To me the books feel the same. Glorifying an existance and experiences that seem to lack any thoughts to consequence and real Truth. It disturbs me that two books in two completely different genres have so much in common. None of this really matters, its just a book. My final words are such, please reader, friend, do not think me arrogant in knowing how our good Lord wants us to write books or understand them. I write mearly the response of my heart and mind. I am fully aware that I too daily fall short of God's greatness, and am simply blundering my way through this life trying to love our God and live His will.