I just finished reading Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. 
He is also the author of one of my all time favorite books, Blue Like Jazz.
Reading his books really gets me to thinking. This book was about living out your “story”. He examines his very interesting life, which then of course leads you to examine your own!I thought I would share some of my thoughts and points that I took away from it.
“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.”
(how beautiful and comforting is that!)
“The point of a story is the character arc, the change.”
(change happens everyday in our lives, good or bad change, we have to figure out our way of dealing with that change)
“People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain.”
“Fear isn’t only a guide to keep us safe; its also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life”
(holy cow, do I need to remember this EVERYDAY!)
“The ambitions we have will become the stories we live. If we don’t want anything, we are living boring stories.”
“A story is based on what people think is important, so when we live a story, we are telling others around us what we think is important”
( SO true)
“When we look back on our lives, what we will remember are the crazy things we did, the times we worked harder to make a day stand out”
(he speaks about the time that he decided to join a group that was riding their bikes across the country to raise money to build fresh water wells in Africa,(he had NEVER ridden a bike other than for fun), he also speaks about the time that he felt the need to start a non-profit organization for mentoring young children from broken homes,(even though he had no clue where to start), and when he decided to climb Machu Picchu in Peru!)
“In Ecclesiastes, the only practical advice given about living a meaningful life is to find a job you like, enjoy your marriage, and obey God.” (in other words, Write a good story, take somebody with you and let him help!)
I know that this isn’t the typical blog post for me, but this book spoke to me. It really got me thinking about my life and about the lives of my loved ones and friends.
Sometimes, life is completely NOT what you expect. I can't even tell you how many times I've witnessed this in so many different ways in the lives of those around me-- as well as my own in the past few years. No matter how we plan and strive to stick to those plans, there is always something greater going on that we could ever have planned for or yet understand.
He knows what is best for us, even when it seems like He has snatched something good out of our lives. He loves us in all circumstances, no matter what they may be-- and He will always, always give us the grace that we need to deal with whatever He sends our way. It is ours when we choose to ask for it.
Everything... Everything... Happens for a reason. Sometimes this is really hard for me to believe but I think it makes you stronger, and you have to make the best of it. Look forward to the future, make the best of the present, and remember the past cannot be changed - but you can learn from it.
Life is what we make of it, and we are what life makes us. We cannot control most of it, but we can change parts of it by our choices. WE choose each and everyday to either be happy, sad, mad or content.
One thing that I have been trying to remember, is to look at the big picture.
Life is a journey, and it is sometimes an incredibly bumpy and windy road that we travel. We don't know what is ahead or where our paths lie. But what a Guide we have. I don’t know that we can ask for than that.
I know this isn’t typical posting for me, but it is what I felt I needed to sit down and think about!
