Tonight Donald Miller did an in-store event in Murfreesboro, TN. It was in conjunction with his latest book “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”.

When Don arrived a group of kids were singing patriot songs in front of the store and made it hard to hear. There were jokes about throwing books and yelling shut up, but everyone kept commenting on how cute the kids were so they were left alone. Don answered questions while the kids sang and people huddled around close to hear. Once the kids got through with the PA system it was wheeled over and they let Don use it. I guess we all rank lower than cute kids, but I do know parents get nasty when their kids don’t get proper attention…I guess to keep the parents from rioting our group was last on the list.

I 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.

*This post has a sarcasm alert (for the humorless)*

Today as I was heading home I got a tweet to my phone that the locations had been announced for Donald Miller’s new book locations. After being 30 seconds to late to find the first one I was not sure I would make it on time. Especially with directions from Google (see inset photo).

Despite the fact that Google told me I was 2 hours and 20 minutes away…I thought I would go for the book anyway — seriously screw Google. About 10 minutes later I was walking into the Thomas Nelson office and running desperately up to the poor woman at the counter and screaming at her to see if anyone had found the book.

I think I scared her…she told me the book had been found and I went crazy screaming and asking to speak to someone in charge, she went and got another copy and told me never to set foot in Nashville again (a small sacrifice to pay for such a worthy book). After I ninja jumped my way out of the building and into the rain I headed home to bask in the glory — okay more like rub it in the nose of everyone on the internet — but really who cares I have it and they don’t.