"When we reduce Christian Spirituality to math, we defile the holy. I thought that was very beautiful and comforting becuase I have never been good at math. Many of our attempts to understand Christian faith has cheapened it."

"all the wonder of God happened right above our arithmetic and formula. The more I climb outside my pat answers, the more invigoraitng the view, the more my heart enters into worship."

"I think we have two choices in the face of such big beauty: terror or awe. ANd this is precisely why we attempt to chart God, becuase we want to be able to predict him, to dissect him, to carry him around in our dog and pony show.

We are too proud to feel awe and too fearful to feel terror.

We reduce him to math so we don't have to fear him, and yet the bible tells us fear is the appropriate response, that is the beginning of wisdom. Does this mena GOd is going to hurt us? No. But i sttod on the edge of the Grand Canyon once, behind a railing, and though i was never going to fall off, I feared the thought of it. It is that big of a place, that wonderful of a landscape."

-Don Miller, Blue Like Jazz

It is hard for me to walk away from Math class when I come before God. It is ironic how I hate math with a passion, but cling to formula in the rest of my life. I like my lists. I like knowing what formula i should plug my X and Y into. Or do I? I don't think so.

I have grown up (or i should say am growing up in) a world based on formula. My entire life up to this point has been based on doing the right dance to get the right cookie from the right person, but i've never been satisfied with that. My dad says, "There is no such thing as 'I didn't mean to.' It's 'I didn't mean not to.'" That formula has been lodged into my brain for 17 years. Sometime a few years ago, I remember my mom saying to me after I got in trouble from my dad for something silly, "You don't have to be perfect." That was the first time I had ever heard either of my parents say something like that to me. "You don't have to be perfect." what an idea.

I like not having to have it all figured out. I like not having to guess what other people expect of me. I like knowing that I am ok if i don't know how to calculate this problem.

These quotes from Don Miller really resonated with me today. Being able to formulate Christianity isn't a sign of maturity in Christ, but a practice in emptying my insides for the sake of religion (that is, other people). Once, I heard someone say Christian maturity is knowing more each day my need for God. Strangely enough, the world says Christian maturity is how much you can know based on your own understanding.

The best kind of worship is wonder.