I just finished A Million Miles in a Thousand Years in two days.I love good books that I can’t put down that make me cry and laugh outloud and dog ear innumerable pages.

 

 

 

I just finished another book, that will remain nameless, that I also couldn’t wait to finish. But like, so I could throw it away. I never throw books away.But I could not think of a solitary person to give this book to.I love to read.I love to sit with a cup of tea, maybe a snack, pull the blanket up, and dive in.But this book put images in my head I won’t be able to shake for years…not good images.And this book, in a few places, literally made me want to vomit.You know it’s a bad book when I realize I shouldn’t actually eat said snack at the same time that I’m reading, just in case.I digress.

 

 

 

All that to say, I was due for a good read, craving one actually, and A Million Miles… delivered.

 

 

 

There are about ten zillion things, okay, maybe a good twenty, that I will want and need to sit with. A ton of quotes that I’ll want to copy into my journal. I might as well just stuff the entire book into my journal. So, so good, Mr. Miller. Thank you.

 

 

 

But here’s just one thought that I’m going to dwell on, and I’m paraphrasing.All of our lives are, for the most part, made up of many mundane moments.Some of us, however, have entire lives filled with only the mundane.When in reality, God wants to pull us into a much bigger and much better story, if only we’d look up, and open our hands, and bend a knee in our hearts.

 

 

 

My life used to be mundane.I have, thankfully, crossed over to the other side.I had what is called an inciting moment – a huge, long crisis – that I chose to not let kill me.Or make me really mad at life or God or other people.Instead I chose to let it refine me.And I’ve had more better stories in the handful of years since that time than I did before all added up.

 

 

 

But I want more better stories. And not just for me. But for my friends. Because I have better-stories kind of friends. (Donald even reminds us that we are who we hang out with, and if we’re living a boring life, our friends probably are too, and vice versa.)

 

 

 

But not just for me and not just for my friends, but for my children.

 

 

 

I do not want bored children. I do not want boring children. And I do not want children who start their better stories after college when “real life” begins. I want those better stories for them right now. Right now at 11 and 13.

 

 

 

This will be an uphill battle for me for a personal reason and for a universal reason. The personal reason will stay personal but the universal reason is this – my enemy wants me and my children to live boring stories. To stay stuck. He’s thrilled when he sees someone stuck in the mundane. In fact, he doesn’t bother with those who are stuck in the mundane because they pose not one iota of a threat to him and his plan.

 

 

 

So, Lord, help me “add to the beauty”, to quote Sara Groves. Help me to “be the beauty”, to quote my friend, Charlotte. Help me to look for and walk into each and every better story You’ve written for me. And help me, please, to stir up better stories for my children so that we can become one of those families. I don’t want to settle for anything in life. I want to have a pile of better stories to sift through when all is said and done, and I want You as my Author. Amen.