A Million Miles In A Thousand Years
It’s been a long time since I’ve been inspired. We use the word “inspired” way too often and most of the time we are referring to things that aren’t inspiring at all. According to Merriam-Webster, inspire means “to influence, move, or guide by divine or supernatural inspiration.” Donald Miller’s new book, Million Miles in a Thousand Years, has inspired me. This book influenced me; it caused me to move. I believe it will cause you to move as well.
As always, Don tells a story, his story. However, this time, the story is about story. I know that sounds confusing but stick with me and we’ll try to clear it up. The basic outline for the book is Don working with new friends Steve and Ben to come up with a storyline for Blue Like Jazz the movie. Seeing as how Don’s books are based in his own story, he ends up editing his own life, writing about a fictional Don Miller. Along the way, he learns more about the concept of story. He has to find out what makes a good story and then allow the fictional Don Miller to walk through them. Then he starts to wonder about the story the real Don Miller is walking through.
I laughed all through the first half of the book because Ben is a real person and he’s a friend of mine. As I read each line, I could hear him saying those things. As an added bonus, Steve was in one of my all-time favorite bands. So I was definitely invested in this book from the beginning. Add to that Don Miller, who is an author I really enjoy. I doubt that I’m in his Tmobile Top 5, but I think he would recognize me if I walked up to him on the street. If I had a nametag on.
I love Don because he sees the comedy and the value in his own life, in his story. And he relates it in a way that I connect to it. Don looked at what it takes to have a great story, what it might look like to live that way, met people that did live like that, and re-examined how he was living his own life. Along the way, he inspired me to do the same.
Todd