Blue like Jazz

I really enjoyed reading the book Blue like Jazz recently. Indeed I have not enjoyed a book as much for a long time. It is a very humorous and enjoyable read. Donald Miller comes across as a very likable and witty guy. Near the end he writes:

I was watching BET one night, and they were interviewing a man about jazz music. He said jazz music was invented by the first generation out of slavery. I thought that was beautiful because, while it is music, it is very hard to put on paper; it is so much more a language of the soul. It is as if the soul is saying something, something about freedom. I think that Christian spirituality is like jazz music. I think loving Jesus is something you feel. I think it is something very difficult to put on paper. But it is no less real, no less meaningful, no less beautiful.

The first generation out of slavery invented jazz music. It is a music birthed out of freedom. And it is the closest thing I know to Christian spirituality. A music birthed out of freedom. Everybody sings their song the way they feel it, everybody closes their eyes and lifts up their hands.