Sunday, November 29, 2009

Living a GREAT life...

"Every life is a story. Whether it is a story worth telling and talking about, though, is up to you. People set out with grand dreams of changing the world, falling in love, doing something amazing. But the drift toward the merely acceptable happens almost without notice. That does not have to be our story." -Donald Miller A Million Miles in a Thousand Years


I am at the end of reading this book, A Million Miles In a Thousand Years By: Donald Miller. I love it. It has reminded me of so much of my life and the times in my life where I think, "This is the best day of my life." Do you ever do that? Do you ever have one of those days you don't ever want to forget. One of those days that you are doing the exact thing that you want to do. Most of mine happen outside. I think I'm a little weird about this. I try to explain it to people some times but I'm not sure they quite get what I'm saying but I live for these moments of thinking "this is the best day". I will tell you a few....



One of my younger ones was when my parents dug a pond in our back yard. I remember me, my mom, dad, and both brothers were outside and our parents let us wade out deep in knee high mud. I remember a year or so later going swimming in that pond. I would jump in and the catfish would nibble at my toes. I remember pretending the creek that ran into the pond was a slip-in-slide and sliding in the mud. We found a crawlfish that day...


I remember the first time I slept outside in our fort me and my brothers made. My older brother and cousin slept in their fort and I slept in a tent with my cats. I caught my hair on fire that night...



I remember being on a house boat with friends jumping off the top and being pulled on an inner-tube with all 5 (or 6) of us girls on that intertube at the same time....I remember thinking that was a good day....



I remember spending the day in Mentone with Q before we were dating thinking that I didn't want the day to end. I remember we found a Frisbee on top of a shed and Q held me up to get it. I remember taking a hike though the woods and laying beside Q leaning against a rock talking about life....



I remember playing ball in the streets of Ireland. I remember standing up in front of hundreds in Africa telling people about the time I asked Jesus into my heart. I could go on and on of memories that are the "this is the best day" but the sad thing is the older I get the less I have these days. I need to change that.


In Donald Millers book he talks about people who have made their stories great because they do great things. Their life is not their own. They live for their creator who makes their story what it is if they listen and obey. These people in the book do great things that impact other people. I want to impact other people, positively in a huge way. I borrowed this book but I wish it was mine to highlight parts and underline. I feel like I'm rambling and not making a lot of since. I wish I could share with you every story in the book. I wish I could share with you how he writes and makes me want to have an adventure everyday. I just think that life is worth living... We should have something to live for. I do. Go read the book! A Million Miles in a Thousand Years By: Donald Miller


"I like those scenes in the Bible where God stops people and asks them to build an altar. You'd think He was making them do that for Himself, but I don't think God really gets much from looking at a pile of rocks. Instead, I think God wanted his people to build altars for their sake, something that would help them remember, something they could look back on and remember the time when they were rescued, or they were given grace." -Donald Miller




"We have to get up off the couch and turn the television off, we have to bow up the inner-tubes and head to the river. We have to write the poem and deliver it in person. We have to pull the car off the road and hike to the top of the hill. We have to put on our suits, we have to dance at weddings. We have to make altars." -Donald Miller

2 comments:

Ladners'Latest said...

Great post!

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

I wanted to invite you to a webinar hosted by Donald Miller next Thursday morning on the subject of his new “Convergence” DVDs for small groups (mostly). Convergence is Miller at his best: doing honest talk about faith. On the first dvd set he talks to Dan Allender, Phyllis Tickle, Lauren Winner. He just recorded the next set with Randy Alcorn, Henry Cloud, John Townsend. You can listen in Thursday, Dec. 17 at 9 a.m. Pacific time (11 am PT, 12 pm MT, 1 pm CT, 2 pm ET). Go to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/543081489 to RSVP for the webinar & we'll be sure to send you a reminder.
You can learn more about Convergence at www.allthingsconverge.com. If you have any further questions please feel free to email Monique@Lovell- Fairchild.com.

Thanks,
Monique Sondag