Catalyst
Posts Tagged ‘Thomas Nelson’
From Boring Life to Epic
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Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life by Donald Miller
If they made a movie from the story of your life, would you buy a ticket? Would it even make it to DVD on the “cheap shelf?
For Donald Miller, his adventure into writing a screenplay based on his life taught him one thing–his life was boring. He needed to find a story and develop a character. His book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years takes a Picassoesque approach to the pursuit of meaning in life and creating a better life story.
Miller’s book reads like a rafting trip on a river. It starts slow, picks up speed, and then pumps adrenalin through your heart. When Miller describes life, you find him slipping into your shoes. The routine is familiar. He explains why we sit on comfortable couches, eating chips and mindlessly drinking sodas. We enjoy the comfort but want something more. So the reader follows him as he kayaks down a river to meet a man named Bob. (You want to meet your own Bob one day.) You pant as you make your way up a Peruvian hillside. You feel the ache in your calves as you pedal cross-country with him. More than that, you feel the tears that comes from living a genuine life.
Miller aptly points out that character comes from overcoming obstacles. Most Americans seek to avoid obstacles. Is that why character slips a little more each day? All need to write an epic story with their life. Try great things. Challenge yourself. Pour yourself out for others. Then you have something worthy of epic.
I came away from Miller’s book with more than appreciation. It sparked a small flicker of desire for more than the routine. His masterful weaving of story blew the embers into flame to be more genuine, more daring, and more creative. Whether I ever bike across America or plant a tree in the Sub-Sahara, I will let Donald Miller have a key to my home any time. He is always welcome.
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life is published by Thomas Nelson Publishers and is available online and at bookstores.
Just a Little Perspective
Everyone needs a Jones (no Mr.) enter their life. With Andy Andrews’ newest book The Noticer, Jones extends his hand with a warm handshake. The book allows you to hear the slight gravel of his kind voice as he speaks words of wisdom.
Andrews is the best-selling author of The Traveler’s Gift. His storytelling makes him the modern-day William Tell who can hit the heart without damaging the soul. This book hits the bull’s-eye.
The book begins with the first encounter between a homeless searcher meeting a kindly old man named Jones with an ever-present brown suitcase. As the story unfolds, you find yourself stepping into the shoes of a couple whose marriage is in trouble, a father who cuts too many corners, and a widow who believes her life is behind her.
In each case, Jones simply gives them a rare gift–a little perspective. It’s the perspective that lingers in your heart like a mist on a spring day. With memorable aphorisms, Jones (who is the mouthpiece for Andrews) waves mental smelling salts under your nose to wake you to reality.
• In marriage, your problem is you speak a different dialect.
• Big stuff is made up of small stuff, so you better sweat the small stuff!
• If you are still here, then you have not completed your life’s purpose.
• Wisdom is the ability to see the future consequences of our choices.
• It takes wisdom to discern that oh-so-thin line between good and best.
The book ends with a challenge to spread the seeds left by Jones. The challenge is to simply become a noticer who enters the lives of people and give them a little perspective. How could you change your world with a little wisdom, some caring, and a little brown suitcase?
Not all books are the same. Some you borrow from the library and read them. Some you buy, read, shelve, and refer to occasionally. Other books you buy, keep and re-read every year. Andrews’ books are in the last category for me. However, of all the jewels written by Andrews, The Noticer is his Hope diamond. It takes you by the hand, buys you a cup of coffee and gives a little perspective when life gets twisted and tangled.
Don’t just buy The Noticer. Read it. Weep over it. Change over it. Become a new person with it. Whether you live under a pier or a palatial mansion, you will never be the same after your meeting with Jones. And, in reality, you will become the Jones for those who know you.
Sometimes, all a person needs is a little perspective. That’s Andrews’ gift to me in this book. Let him give it to you as well.
The Noticer, by Andy Andrews. Published by Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2009. 167 Pages.
Available through amazon.com.