Book Review: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
By Donald Miller
Thomas Nelson Publishing, Nashville, TN., 2009

In his thought provoking and light hearted writing style, Donald Miller reflects on his life when he is invited by a producer and a camera-man to create a movie about his life. As he begins to reflect upon his life, he soon realizes how so many of his memories have slipped into the recesses of our mind how difficult it is to access the memories. He begins to wonder if his life is just too boring, too ordinary for a movie -- a movie that moves quickly and is completed in in a little over two hours long. In his book, he reflects upon the characteristics of what makes a good story and in the process he discovers that his story does have meaning and purpose.

Miller begins his life's reflections with the question: "Is life and love and death anything more than random happenings?" In his book this question compels him to find an answer to this driving question and in doing so he is writing a new story. He soon discovers that sometimes we have to choose a different story to write than the one we're in and sometimes we need to let God and the circumstances of life shape our story. In his growing frustration in creating a compelling life story, Miller attends a writing seminar with a friend where he learns that life and good movies requires a few essential and memorable events that change your life and your expectations.

In his book, Miller reflects upon weddings and funerals. This becomes a significant analogy for Miller because it is the motivation that changes his life. In chapter six, Miller writes about how much he enjoys weddings and how dreadfully sad and disappointing funerals are because they end good lives. Here is Miller's observation of funerals and weddings: "I heard that a lot of playwrights used to end their stories with a funeral if it was a tragedy and a wedding if it was comedy. I think that's why we make such a big deal out of weddings, because a wedding means life, and because the bride and groom are old enough to write a thank-you note for the serving spoons you gave them. And perhaps because you get to drink and dance, no matter how old you are. I only dance at weddings. I practically only drink at weddings, too, mostly because that's where I do my dancing. One of the things that gives me hope is that, even with all the tragedy that happens in the world, the Bible says that when we get to heaven, there will be a wedding and there will be drinking and there will be dancing." [Miller, Page 32]

In this context Donald Miller reflects upon the death of his Uncle who he believed wrote a beautiful story about his life. It is his reflection upon his uncle's life and the boy's camp he founded in Florida. Miller's uncle took juvenile delinquents, brought them to the camp and he would teach them how to work and how to solve conflicts and get along with one another. Miller admired his uncle's story -- the one that told a good story with his life. The sad part for Miller is that the story of his uncle's life ended too soon, he wasn't finished with his story. It is his uncle's story that shapes his choices in the book and helps him complete the movie script that he and his friends are working on throughout the book.

The unfinished story of his Uncle Art was the motivation he needed to explore his own story. He didn't want to wait until he was older to create the story. Instead, while he is young and still able to make a difference in his life and the lives of others, he was going to write a different story than the current story he was living. Miller reflects upon the importance of taking risks and not to be afraid. Miller observes fear as something that can guide us and keep us safe, but it's also an emotion that that can trick us into living a boring life. He observes that "...fear causes an inciting incident that when the protagonist passes through this doorway, he cannot return." [Miller, Page 108]

Through humor, changes in choices made, conversations with an array of interesting people, Miller finds himself participating in stories that others are writing and soon discovers that he too is writing an interesting story about his life. As Miller continues to reflect upon his life and live into his story that he and God are writing together, he is happy with his story. In the beginning, Miller reflected upon a life that was totally random and events and circumstances just happen to him without cause or concern. He lives for his television, barely getting up in the morning to take Lucy, his dog, for a walk. Through the hard work of producing a movie, Miller loses himself in the story he and God are writing. Miller writes, "I take my dog to Westmoreland Park, where she plays in the creek. She runs up and down through the creek bed, diving headlong into the water, chasing ducks. Sometimes when I watch her I think about how good life can be, if we only lose ourselves in our stories. Lucy doesn't read self-help books about how to be a dog; she just is a dog. All she wants to do is chase ducks and sticks and do other things that make her and me happy." [Miller, Page 246]

Life is about getting lost in the story that you and God are writing. Miller's concluding reflection about his wedding day in heaven has this to share with all who are seeking meaning and purpose in life. He writes, "I don't wonder anymore what I'll tell God when I go to heaven, when we sit in the chairs under the tree, outside the city. I'll tell [my story] to God, and he'll laugh, I'll think, and he'll remind me of the parts I forgot, the parts that were his [sic] favorite. We'll sit and remember my story together, and then he'll stand and put his arms around me and say, "Well done," and that he liked my story. And my soul won't be thirsty anymore." He goes onto to write, "Finally, he'll turn, and we'll walk toward the city, a city he will have spoken into existence, a city built in a place where once there had been nothing." [Miller, Page 249-250]