A Million Miles

WOAH! I can't believe that my last post was like 5 weeks ago, where does the time go? I feel like I have been running at a million miles...

Speaking of millions of miles, I just got done reading Donald Miller's new book "A Million Miles In A Thousand Years". I know what you are thinking—yes I do read, occasionally.




I've wondered, though, if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don't want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgment. We don't want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage. And if life isn't remarkable, then we don't have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims rather than grateful participants.

The book is about living a better story. That there is just too much going on to be part of a boring story. He compares what are the essential elements of an amazing story and how we can apply those same ellements to our lives to ensure that we live a life of purpose, a life of passion.

A character is what he does.

Sometimes I feel like there is down time in my life. A period where I am waiting for that "what next" moment, for direction, for a passion, for a reason to move. It may be unintentional, but at times I feel as though there is something more, something that I have missed, something that I just don't know what it is, that I missed something important but I don't know what it is. At times I feel stagnate, unsure about what I am looking for, or where to start looking for it. But I am always looking, with eyes wide open.

...but I wasn't living any kind of sacrifice. My entire life had been designed to make myself more comfortable, to insulate myself from the interruption of my daydreams. Your life is a blank page. You write on it.

I feel like I am skeptical of strangers a lot. It takes a lot of conscience thinking for me to put myself out there and take an interest in other people. The funny thing though, is that I am fascinated with other people. But all the time I run into situations where I think that after, I should have asked this, or done that.

Just this last weekend, Jordan and I were in Subway eating dinner in Anaheim after a half-day at Disneyland. As we were eating, a teenager was being rung out and came up 50 cents short for his sandwich. He didn't look to well off in general with a baggy t-shirt and beat up skateboard. He asked openly but under his breath if anyone in the store had 50 cents...I barely heard him. I almost dismissed it. But I looked up to see him looking from the counter at everyone eating, eager. I check my pockets and wallet but all I had where big bills.

Here's the truth about telling stories with your life. It's going to sound like a great idea, and you are going to get excited about it, and then when it comes time to do the work, you're not going to want to do it. It's like that with writing books, and it's like that with life. People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen. But joy costs pain.

I'm not unhappy with my life at all. Not in the slightest. I just want to be conscience of what is going on around me and make sure that I am aware of the opportunities that are either presented or created. The opportunities to live a great story or be a character in someone else's story.

Job responds, even before his health and wealth are restored by saying, "All of this is too wonderful for me." Job found contentment and even joy, outside the context of comfort, health or stability. He understood the story was not about him, and he cared more about the story than he did about himself.

I heard this passage in a sermon one time, the line "all of this is too wonderful for me" part, and thought how cool is that! Compared to what Job went through, any trial that is going on with me seems trivial. Especially when Job can be completely torn down and still maintain an attitude that is focused on heaven. Sometimes when I feel overwhelmed I remember this and just say to myself, "All of this is too wonderful for me". I usually feel a little better.

People who live good stories are too busy to write about them.

I think that it's crap if you are too busy living a good story to not document it, to not tell it, to not reflect upon it. If you are too busy living and not doing those things, then you are missing the point. You should be living, but you have to create those stories along with the ability to tell them. Because if you can't tell them, they aren't stories.

Besides, every moment that we experience that is out of the ordinary becomes a marker in our memories. At least in mine. I have a terrible time recalling things. I make a million lists. I forget. I need something to anchor each memory too, a peg to hang something important on so I never forget. I heard a quote one time that went, "words are pegs to hang idea on." I'm not very good with words, I'm better with pictures, but if I can remember someone else's, I figure that just as good.

But honestly, when I think back on those those six weeks [Don speaking about riding his bike across the country], what I really remember are the few times when we made an extra effort to do something memorable...When we look back on our lives, what we will remember are the crazy things we did, the time we worked harder to make a day stand out...Good stories contain memorable scenes.

I'm realizing more and more that the things that matter the most, are the people that stick around you. I have been blessed with an amazing family, a loving girlfriend and equally amazing friends. I have realized that the stories I want to live, experience and tell, involve them. And that people or characters are the center of any great story. That you can't have a story without people. I use to think that I didn't need anyone, I could do it all on my own. Now I realize that I don't want to do it without them. I'm also realizing that strangers are opportunities to learn, or listen, or tell, or become part of a story. And all it takes is some passion or just willingness to to do that. My sister is great at this. Sometimes I envy her for that.

[A fathers little girl comes home with a dress to wear to the prom] She put it on and cames down to show her dad, he turned down the volume on the TV and tells her she looked nice. As she thanked him and and walked away he thought he should have said more. He went back to the watching TV, but it kept bugging him. Then he came up with an idea. He decided to create a memorable moment, if you will. He turned off the television and went into his closet and put on his suit. Without letting his wife or daughter see him, he found the family camera and knocked on her door. When his daughter opened the door, she was still in the dress and her mother was sitting on the bed with stick pins in her mouth. "Honey," the dad said to his wife, "would you mind taking a picture of us?" "Daddy, you're wearing a suit," his daughter said confused. "I want to look good in the picture too," he replied. The three of them ended up dancing in the living room until one in the morning.

When I hear about stories like this, where a little inspiration and effort turn into something more, something...extraordinary, it makes me feel glad to be alive. It makes me think that the small things do matter and that it doesn't take much to create a story. I don't have to change the world, I can just recognize an opportunity and act in changing another persons world. I don't do that enough, I feel. I might be present, but am I acting...I need to act more.

I like those scenes in the Bible where God stops people and asks them to build an alter. You'd think He was making them do that for Himself, but I don't think God really gets much from looking at a pile of rocks. Instead, I think God wanted his people to build alters for their sake, something that would help them remember, something they could look back on and remember the time when they were rescued, or they were given grace...We have to force ourselves to create these scenes. We have to get up off the couch and turn the television off, we have to blow up the inner-tubes and head down to the river. We have to write the poem and deliver it in person. We have to pull the car off the road and hike to the top of the hill. We have to put on our suits, we have to dance at weddings. We have to make alters.

I heard a sermon this last Sunday where the speaker was talking about us being the salt of the earth. That we were created to go out and flavor things. And that if we are not doing what we were created to do, then we weren't even good enough to stand on God's poo pile. That the poo pile was better than us. That God could use that poo pile to create something, but he couldn't do anything with us. That rocks are potentially worshiping God better than us when we don't flavor things and go out to show his glory because they are rocks and they lie there doing what they were created to do, which is just be a rock. I thought that was funny, and also kind of beautiful. We all search for "what we are suppose to do," when ultimately all we are called to do is worship God. Everything else that happens is just the story. I found comfort in that.

Be present, experience and worship God, be active and jump on opportunities, create, push, react positively, document. I'm writing a new chapter in my story, and it starts...now.