A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

I've been reading Donald Miller's newest book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, and I have really been enjoying it. It starts slow, basically telling some of the behind the scenes activity surrounding the making of the soon to be released movie, Blue Like Jazz. One of my favorite sections tells of a dad who is having problems with his thirteen year old daughter. The dad realizes that at the root of the problem is the bad story that his family has been living out.

Donald writes this:

He (the dad) thought about the story his daughter was living and the role she was playing inside that story. He realized he hadn't provided a better role for his daughter. He hadn't mapped out a story for his family. And so his daughter had chosen another story, a story in which she was wanted, even if she was only being used. In the absence of a family story, she'd chosen a story in which there was risk and adventure, rebellion and independence. "She's not a bad girl," my friend said. "She was just choosing the best story available to her."

He goes on to tell what the dad did to create a new story for his family and how that change transformed their lives. What I love about this, and maybe Donald will get to this point later in the book (I'm only half way through), is that it explains so clearly why God has provided the Bible for us - it's a story to be lived out. Christians focus so much on knowing the Bible (i.e., doctrine, church history), but we almost never get around to living it out. Instead of replacing the story we're living now with the story God has provided, we try to hold on to both stories. We try to incorporate God's story into our story (e.g., our worldview, political positions, and desired behaviors), the one we've made, but it doesn't work. Knowing the story of the Bible is obviously important, but it's not meant to just be known, it's meant to be lived - of course that's the hard part.

I commend Miller's new book to you and encourage you to seriously listen to the message he is sharing - the story you're living makes all the difference.