Reflecting on A Million Miles in a Thousand Days
I just finished reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Days by Donald Miller. Let me just say that it was a very good book and it really got me thinking about my life. This post isn’t meant to be a review of the book. This is more of me processing some of the thoughts that the book stirred up in me.
If you don’t know the premise of the book, it goes something like this: Some movie producers wanted to create a movie out of Donald Miller’s book Blue Like Jazz. Turning his life into a movie got the author thinking about what the elements of a good story are. This is turn got him thinking about how the elements of a good story are some of the same elements that make for a good life. The book takes the reader through Miller’s journey of trying to make his life into a good story. The book is humorous, sad, and thought provoking. Sometimes all at the same time.
I highly recommend this book. It will definitely get you thinking about your life. And that is always a good thing.
One of the essential elements of a good story that Miller discovers is that the main character has to have some goal in mind. The character has to be going somewhere. There must be some conflict to overcome or some problem to solve. A story where the character does not have a goal is just aimless.
This got me thinking about my own life, especially the fact that my life seems to have much more purpose since I finally have my own goal. Now that my goal is to go to seminary full time so that I can teach at a university and work in ministry again my life seems to have so much more purpose. I realize now that part of the reason I have been so restless the past few years was that I had no goal. I was just sort of wandering around aimlessly. This doesn’t make for a good story or a good life.
I think that this goal is also what made me want to jump into school full time. Once I had a goal in mind it didn’t seem right to pursue this goal slowly. I had my goal and I wanted to jump in and run to that goal as fast as I could. So that’s what I’m doing. And I’m dragging my family along with me. Because my life isn’t just my story anymore. My story is tied up with my wife’s story and my daughter’s story. Our stories are all connected.
The main idea of A Million Miles in a Thousand Days is that we should be striving to live a better story. If someone made a movie of your life would anyone want to watch it? My life had become me going to work and coming home, spending a little time with my family and going to bed to do it all over again the next day. It was missing excitement and purpose.
Going to school and attempting to find my place in the kingdom of God may not seem that exciting to some people, but it is thrilling to me. I finally have a purpose in my life again and it feels great.
I thought I would leave you with a few of my favorite quotes from A Million Miles in a Thousand Days:
“What I am saying is I think life is staggering and we’re just used to it. We all are like spoiled children no longer impressed with the gifts we’re given- it’s just another sunset, just another rainstorm moving in over the mountain, just another child being born, just another funeral.” (58)
“The ambitions we have will become the stories we live. If you want to know what a person’s story is about, just ask them what they want. If we don’t want anything, we are living boring stories…” (124-125)
“I realized how much of our lives are spent trying to avoid conflict. Half the commercials on television are selling us something that will make life easier. Part of me wonders if our stories aren’t being stolen by the easy life.” (186)
