Wordful Wednesday: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
I’ll just start with the punch line: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, by Donald Miller, is a wonderful book. I was fully prepared, having heard much of the material in it at Men’s Retreat this year, to find it repetitive, boring, unengaging, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
But the material is so engaging and profound that I couldn’t put it down.
Keep in mind that this is coming from someone who doesn’t really like Christian Inspiration titles. I prefer to go for Apologetics or Theology books.
Don Miller was certainly my favorite Men’s Retreat speaker ever, because he just seemed like one of the guys. I don’t go to Men’s Retreat to learn about Greek. I don’t want hard expository preaching there. (Which might be surprising given my position on the topical vs. expository sermon debate.)
But I came back from the Retreat with some vague notion about Story, and that it was important, but I couldn’t articulate it.
Now, having read the material, it sunk in a bit deeper. And I got more of Don’s story, and it’s a good one.
A Million Miles details the discoveries Don made about what makes a good story, while working to write Blue Like Jazz into a screenplay. He discovered, like most of us probably would, that his life was simply too boring to put onscreen.
So he investigated the elements of story, and determined that, ultimately “a story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.”
Of course, that’s what it is, and that doesn’t necessarily make any story a good one. After all, as he writes in the introduction to the book:
Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.
But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to feel meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either.
I loved the way he structured the book, slowly developing his overall point about story, while weaving it together with stories from his own life and others’ lives, showing how changing one’s story isn’t easy, but it’s definitely rewarding.
I think one of the reasons I liked this book so much was that, unlike most Christian Inspiration books, this one actually provides some, you know, inspiration.
(You may wonder why this isn’t a Theology Thursday Book Review. Well, it’s Wednesday, so there’s that. Plus, this book is higher on inspiration than the Christian part. And I didn’t find that to be a negative.)
In terms of application, I’ve been thinking about that since Men’s Retreat. And I’ve taken some small action in that regard. I’ve decided that I’d like to grow as a singer, so I auditioned (and was hired) for a Christmas Caroling troupe called Fireside Carolers.
There’s certainly conflict involved. First and foremost, the auditioning part, which is never anyone’s favorite thing to do. But the hard work of learning the dozens of songs we’ll be singing is another thing. And the realization that I could stand to become a better musician has been an eye-opener for me. And maybe that’s something to work on next.
(Yes, I went to a great college with a great music program. And no, I didn’t take advantage of it the way I should have.)
It’s not like working to become a better musician/singer is something life-changing. I can pretty much be exactly the same man I am while improving this one thing. So I’ve still got to figure out how to start living a better story in other areas, too.
This was the first of Mr. Miller’s books that I’ve read in print. I listened to Blue Like Jazz a few years ago, mostly because it was read by Scott Brick. And I very much enjoyed it. Interestingly, after hearing Don in person, I didn’t enjoy Mr. Brick’s reading of Through Painted Deserts as much as I thought I would. (True, it wasn’t as profound a book, but I think I just wanted to hear Don.)