"A Million Miles in A Thousand Years"

During my 3-week hiatus from school, I got to do a lot of reading (for pleasure). I just finished reading "A Million Miles in A Thousand Years" by Donald Miller, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I read "Blue Like Jazz" a couple years ago and was impressed with his writing and put his other books on my "to read" list, but hadn't gotten to them until now. When I wrote my list last week, I was only half-way through this book and gave it just 3 stars. Well, now, I give it 4½ stars. I like that it is autobiographical, but reads like a fiction story. I like that it reads like a story, but also has profound spiritual incite that you would expect from a theologian. I like that, despite having spiritual incite, it was not at all preachy. It was just a good book.

I loved the chapter "The Reason God Hasn't Fixed You Yet" because Miller describes so well one of the greatest struggles many Christians have: expectation. We expect God to be something for us, to do things for us, to tell us what to do. But, if you step back (and read Scripture) you will see that He doesn't work that way. What He does is give us hope; opportunity; strength. We can depend on Him to help us rely on ourselves and on each other. I love that picture in my mind. Miller points out that (at the time he wrote the book), the happiest country on earth was Denmark. And he points out that its not because of income or vacation time or good health, but because the people there have low expectations. They have realistic views about life, relationships, etc.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from this book:
"I've let go of the idea that this life has a climax. I'm trying to be more Danish, I guess. And the thing is, it works. When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are. And when you stop expecting material possessions to complete you, you'd be surprised at how much pleasure you get in material possessions. And when you stop expecting God to end all of your troubles, you'd be surprised at how much you like spending time with God."

Great read. 4½/5 stars