A Thousand Miles in a Million Years

I don't really consider myself a book reviewer.  I might tell someone I loved a book or tell someone else how much I hated another. But I don't normally take the time to review a book.  And this is not a book review either.  It is a "I loved this book and I want you to read it because I hope you will love it and that it inspires you to live out an amazing story" post as well as I want to share some of the awesome truths written on these pages (I hope I'm not infringing on any copyright laws).

After a rough night and an encouraging skype date (see one of the reasons I love Skype :), my dear friend and other-half-of-soul shared an excerpt with me from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller (author of Blue like Jazz).  After she finished reading, I knew this was a must read.  The book itself is about Donald Miller's realization that we were created to live stories - but not bad, boring stories that make you want to put down the book forever or make you regret you spend your money.  No.  We were created to live incredible, memorable stories.  Stories that take our breath away.  Stories that create the desire to do the extraordinary.  

Here are just a few of my favorite lines/passages from this wonderful book (and might I add it's a fun read because Miller writes using stories from his own life - so it's not a boring self-help book).  But here you should decide for yourself...

"When we watch the news we grieve all of this, but when we go to the movies, we want more of it.  Somehow we realize that great stories are told in conflict, but we are unwilling to embrace the potential greatness of the story we are actually in.  We think God is unjust, rather than a master storyteller." (Pg. 32)

"If I have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, Enjoy your place in my story.  The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you." (Pg. 59)

"We don't want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage.  And if life isn't remarkable, then we don't have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims rather than grateful participants." (Pg. 59).

"The most often repeated commandment in the Bible is "Do not fear."  It's in there over two hundred times.  That means a couple of things, if you think about it.  It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we shouldn't let fear boss us around...But fear isn't only a guide to keep us safe; it's also a manipulative that can trick us into living a boring life." (Pg. 108)

"Growing up in church, we were taught that Jesus was the answer to all our problems.  We were taught that there was a circles chaped hole in our heart and that we tried to fill it with square pegs of sex, drugs, and rock and roll; but only the circle peg of Jesu would fill our hole.  I became a Christian based, in part, on this promise, but the hole never really went away.  To be sure, I like Jesus, and I still hollow him, but the idea that Jesus will make everything better is a liew.  It's basically biblical theology translated into the language of infomercials.  The truth is, the apostles never really promise Jesus is going to make everything better here on earth.  Can you imagine an infomerical with Paul, testifying to the amazing prouduct of Jesus, saying that he once had power and authority, and since he tried Jesus he's been moved from prison to prison, beaten, and routinely bitten by snakes?  I don't think many people would be buying that product.  Peter couldn't do any better.  He was crucificed upside down, by some reports.  Stephen was stoned ouside the city gates.  John supposedly, was boiled in oil.  It's hard to imagine how a religion steeped in so much pain and sacrifice turined in a promise for earthly euphoria.  I think Jesus can make things better, but I don't think he is going to make things perfect.  Not here, and not now.  What I love about the true gospel of Jesus, though, is that it offers hope." (Pg. 203-204 - this is the excerpt that prompted me to go and )

I don't know what stories await me here in Lake Placid or what stories God is preparing for me in Spain...but it isn't it amazing to know that God writes our story...and we need not worry because the story has a happyily ever after...it may not come in this life but when our hope is in Christ it will come...because He is the end of the story...the story that never ends!

Remember you are loved by the ultimate Author...allow Him to write you an extravagant story!