Book Review

I finished a great book this weekend. I recommend it to everyone. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, by Donald Miller. He's the same author who wrote Blue Like Jazz, Searching for God Knows What, and others. I read his adventure tale, Through Painted Deserts, last month, but nothing he has written compares to this latest book.

After writing his successful memoir, Miller's life was stalling; going by in slow motion. He got depressed, couldn't write, or even get out of bed, and his faith was taking a beating. But it all changed when two movie producers approached him about turning his memoir into a movie. He started living again. This book isn't even about the movie. It's about living and everything that comes with it. It's about relationships and community, and love that binds, and adventures.

He writes about telling his story, and realizing that for a while he didn't have a story to tell. Our stories must be difficult, sacrificial and epic, he writes. Jesus wants us to live epic lives with epic stories. And these stories and adventures are designed to transform us, from one person, into a new creation. The change occurs when we really know our Creator and love Him, and start living!

Miller tells tales about so many real-life characters he has met along the way that have inspired him to live a great story. And he got me thinking about all the characters I've met along the way that have inspired me to live a better story. And many of those probably don't even know it. I think I need to fix that.

Part of living a better story is taking risks. Embracing the open doors before us, without fear. Seeing the beauty that is everywhere. Create memorable scenes. A good movie has memorable scenes. So should a good life, he says. And invite other people into the story with you to create memorable scenes, so they can have a better story too.

He got me thinking about memorable scenes in my life, and also ones that I hope to create someday. On the bus to Buj, I started a list of memorable scenes, just spontaneously writing ones down that popped into my mind. I took up two pages in my journal, writing as we bumped along, before I stopped. Things came to my mind like spending the night on the floor of the Paris airport with Sarah and Jason, with our faces pressed up against the nasty tiles, and sitting in the field in the middle of Bamburi, crying with Stella at the orphanage. And dancing in the rain in the quad in Chapel Hill, and holding my nephew for the first time, and jumping in the swollen lake at camp with the whole gang. It was good to reflect back on scenes and stories and those memorable characters that have shaped my life. It's been a good story so far. I can't wait to live the rest of it.

This book will inspire you, and allow you to reflect and dream. I wanna read it again real soon. It reminded me that we all have a story to tell. Question is, what's our story gonna tell?

"If God is your partner, make your plans BIG." ~D.L. Moody