medium_millionI was one of the fortunate ones to get a copy of Donald Miller’s new book in manuscript format before it was released. Donald Miller has been one of my favorite authors for a few years. ‘Blue Like Jazz’ had a deep impact on me (along with tons of other people) so I was looking forward to ‘A Million Miles in a Thousand Years’.

When I started reading the book I ended up laughing out loud multiple times. (Another funny quirky thing about this book was the story about my high school in chapter 33.) It defiantly had the sense of humor that readers of Donald Millers have come to love. This book, while funny, carries a heavy message. What kind of story are you writing for yourself? It makes you take a step back and look at your life.

Story has been a reoccurring aspect in my life for the last several years. The concept of writing your story seeps up in the strangest places — when I least expect it. This book defiantly fits in that category. The concept of story seems to follow me. Even Brian McLaren (a few years back) told me that I should look into Biblical Narrative as a way to tell my story when we had a conversation about my future.

From the beauty of exploring what story actually is to the journey of making your story better can sum up this book (in a horrible way that a book should never be summed up). One of my favorite excerpts (really there are too many to list here) is one about God and Story and it goes like this:

“When Steve, Ben, and I wrote our characters into the screenplay, I felt the way I hope God feels as He writes the world, sitting over the planets and placing tiny people in tiny wombs. 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.”

I keep wondering how many ways God can tell this to me before it sinks in. All that matters is writing a good story and a good story has many elements that we make. This book from start to finish gives the reader glimpses of Donald Miller’s life as he struggles with his own story and then it turns and allows the reader to realize that the story is also their own. It brings laughter, tears and hope.

I know Donald Miller will always be known as the guy who wrote ‘Blue Like Jazz’, but this book has replaced ‘Blue Like Jazz’ as my favorite Donald Miller book. It has much more depth.

Do yourself a favor and by this book. Soak in it and then take the journey to write a better story and don’t forget to jump in the water fully clothed.

Buy it from amazon.com

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