A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story by Donald Miller
After the publication of his wildly successful memoir, Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller’s life began to stall. During what should have been the height of his success, he found himself avoiding responsibility and even questioning the meaning of life. But when two producers proposed turning his memoir into a movie, Miller found himself launched into a new story filled with risk, possibility, beauty, and meaning.
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years chronicles Miller’s rare opportunity to edit his life into a great story and to reinvent himself so nobody shrugs their shoulders when the credits roll. When his producers begin fictionalizing Don’s life for the film–changing a meandering memoir into a structured narrative–the real-life Don starts a journey to make his actual life into a better story.
Okay folks, this is honestly one of my favorite books of all time. Maybe partly just due to the nostalgia of where I was in life at the time. Don Miller was arguably my favorite author back when I was an evangelical pastor, and full disclosure, this is technically a Christian book and it does feature some godtalk. But it’s probably the least Christiany of all Don Miller’s memoirs. So why do I like it so damn much?
Mostly, I just found it so damn inspiring, this concept of asking myself, If my life were turned into a movie, what type of story would it tell? What would be that story’s message? And are these the kinds of stories and messages I’d want my life telling? And so if not, how might I make small changes to shape my life into the story and messages I find more exciting?
I’ve written a bit more, I’ve written articles, I’ve given talks, all centered around the concepts of this book. And most of them after leaving the faith. I’ll try to link some of that here if I can find any of them. But yes, give this fun and playful, comical and entertaining, yet intentionally inspirational, real story a go. And then send me your thoughts on it afterward!
