I heard vague rumours of Donald Miller long before I had the privilege of picking up the masterpiece that is A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. His name popped up in the occasional magazine, his books repeatedly appeared in the ‘buyers who bought this also bought…’ section of Amazon (that section of which will always be the death of my credit card.) But it wasn’t until I was handed the book along with very high recommendations that I first tread the pebbled path of Miller’s writing. A road I shall be eternally grateful I ventured down.
The book starts with this extraordinary quote:
If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn’t tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record on to think about the story you’d seen. The truth is, you wouldn’t remember that movie a week later, except you’d feel robbed and wanted your money back. 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. 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.
Inspiring, to be sure. And it turns out that the rest of the book follows suit like a good game of cards. I would be as bold to say that this is the most inspiring book I have ever read. With sentiments like that from a reviewer, you’d be forgiven for thinking Miller to be some sort of motivational writer, which, by definition I suppose is true. But the book makes no outrageous assertions trumpeting the grandeurs outcomes that will occur in your life once you read it; it’s just one guy being real about his experiences. And, that said, his writing is so down-to-earth that sticking with the book till the end is a breeze. There is no mention of what I like to refer to as “cloud statements”. By this I mean the vague prose you find in some Christian writing where the language is so spiritual and opaque that one tries to grasp the truth of what is being said, only to find oneself holding clumsily onto something one will soon forget. The absence of this style of writing and thinking is perhaps the thing I enjoy the most about Donald’s writing. That and his never ending wit and humour, which, in literature, is always an unexpected and very pleasant surprise.
In his writing I found that Miller doesn’t simply relay information to you, but instead offers new thoughts and ideas through stories both of his and of the people around him. And, in essence, that serves as the main thrust of the book—the importance of story. The central theme or analogy of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years is how similar life is to that of screenplay and stories that happen on stage and in books. Miller muses that many people find life disinteresting and dull not because that is the nature of living but because their lives are just that—disinteresting and dull. The reason he gives for this is that the stories they are telling with their lives are boring, meaningless or irrelevant to anyone around them. Telling better stories—ones which push forward an adventurous plot, not ones about Volvos or other such frivolities—is the key to truly living and coming alive. The trouble is, we chase the material things, thinking, probably as a result of advertising, that these will be our adventure—the thing that finally secures our happiness.
I said it earlier, and I will repeat my sentiments. This is the most inspiring book I have ever creased the front cover of. If you are human, this book is for you. I even enjoyed it more than Miller’s other masterpiece, Blue Like Jazz. And that is a high compliment indeed.
- Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul by Stephen Garton
- Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Stephen Garton
- Face to Face with God: The Ultimate Quest to Experience His Presence by Stephen Garton
- Your Love Never Fails by Stephen Garton
