I read many books every year. Most of them are enjoyable, many of them are good, but very few of them change you. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller changed me.
Just to tell you how good this book is and how powerful I want that statement to be, here is my perspective.
I’m probably one of the luckiest people in the world. I have never really battled hardship (a fact that often scares the crap out of me). I’m very strong and confident in my Christian faith. I’m a classic conservative and believe in absolutes. However, I have a ton of liberal friends because I like to think love is a stronger force in my life than my political proclivity. And finally, I am very passionate about the importance of giving and loving those that haven’t stumbled into as fortunate a life as I have. I tell you this to convince you that changing me is hard. Donald Miller is a powerful channel of goodness.
Donald Miller changed me.
I feel like I should write a “spoiler” alert here or just tell you to buy it because this book is uniquely crafted to yield a personal experience. I won’t though. I’m afraid you will just flip to the next thing in your RSS reader if I don’t tease you with a little of my personal experience.
My Real Life was Boring
Most of us can probably make this statement. Now, I’m not sure I entirely “learned” what Don Miller was driving at, but here’s the realization I came too.
Life is made boring by the crazy blender we place ourselves into. You know—multi-taking, dizzying schedules, and overwhelming workloads. This causes boring lives. At least, I think it’s the source of most of my boringness.
When we are zooming through life we miss all the good stuff. We forget all the “story” that we are involved in because we’re never there. Let me give you an example. Late last week I was at SOBCon and Sharon Gitelle (@sharhope of #forbeschat) mentioned her surprise that everyone had their laptops and were staring at glowing screens. Suggesting that maybe that was impending our focus. This simple comment resulted in more than one barbed and snarky response.
The guy next to me was emailing on his Blackberry. I bet he didn’t even hear her.
I shut my laptop for most of the rest of the conference.
If I hadn’t I’m sure I would have missed the fact that Jay Jay French (@jayjayfrench) was sitting right next to me. I certainly would have missed the opportunity to briefly chat with him.
See–chatting with the guitarist from Twisted Sister—life is no longer boring. You have to have to make a decision to not have a boring life.
You have to be there when life happens (not thinking about your next deadline or task).
Saving the Cat
Here is another great chapter that had a powerful lesson. Here it is in a nutshell: If you want someone rooting for your success you had better do a few nice things along the way.
Unfortunately (for the people) I see this too often. People fighting, scratching, clawing for success. They are so focused on the end game. They are so certain of their goal. They assume it takes a lot of hard work. But, they have this empty feeling and they feel lonely.
Donald Miller makes the problem a little cleared to understand. If you’re not a nice person, most people don’t care about your success. And it’s really hard to achieve anything alone.
Now when I see people frustrated to succeed, My advice will be simple: “You need to save a few cats first.”
Listen to Your Writer
Oh, boy do I need to write this down and carry it around. How often do we want to do it our way? Guess what? Life rarely follows our preferred script and forcing our path only makes the journey longer. I take that back. It’s not necessarily longer, but trying to skip the hard stuff or the pain can really make a mess.
My wife has this philosophy that God tells to do things in the Bible not because he loves rules, but because he knows (like a parent) that some things just invariably hurt others or us. Her favorite example is gossip.
Think about it…it’s true, right?
The point for me was that our writer (whatever you want to call that inner Voice) is creating an important story. A story that is important for you to take part in. Avoiding it often makes a big mess.
The Reason God Hasn’t Fixed You Yet
I think this is one of the hardest lessons to embrace, in life. Few things are more depressing than missed expectations. But, they happen. Maybe they happen for a reason.
I won’t claim to know why.
However, I will promise you none of us are fixed. There is a certain peace in lowering our expectations of others and life. What’s even more exciting is we often get the same grace and life’s amazing moments are easier to spot.
Are you willing to edit your own story (life)? Give it a shot. Spend some time with Donald Miller in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
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