Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Book Reviews

Every year for Christmas I ask for books. I love to read, but recently I've been in a little rut. I haven't found anything that's been that interesting to me besides a 700 page book on the NBA written by The Sports Guy.

My sister got me "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller this year. I've heard the guy speak a few times about the role of story in our lives. There's lots in the book, but I like the premise behind the book more than anything else. I'm basically giving it away, but it goes like this.

You wouldn't want to watch a movie where the ambition of the main character was to buy a nice car. It's not compelling enough. And he defines story as this. A main character, who wants something, and is willing to overcome conflict to get it.

I live my life too many times with a boring premise. But this story of Lucy has been something that has changed the way I look at my story. We haven't had to overcome a lot of conflict, but we WANT this, and we're willing to overcome whatever may come to us.

Even more, I've been amazed at how much people have come alongside Anna and I to show their love and support. It shows that they want to be a part of her story too. It assures me that what we're looking for is actually bigger than ourselves. It's compelling not just to us, but to other people around us. Through this experience, God has shown me that our story, Lucy's story, is part of something bigger. God is in the process of redeeming the entire world, and he's using a little girl that we haven't even met yet to show that He is good to us. Even while we wait for the resolution, he's showing us now that he is the author of a story that we never could have written ourselves.

And that's pretty cool.

Russ


3 comments:

Heather said...

See, I have loved everythign Miller writes... until this. It was well-written enough, but it just didn't hold my attention. Mayeb I read it at the wrong time. For me, timing can be everything when reading.

Felicia said...

I love this post about the book about its application to you life...i love being able to keep up with your story.

Russ said...

to be honest, i haven't been entirely impressed with him. that's actually not true. i loved searching for God knows what, but was underwhelmed by blue like jazz, and absolutely bummed by through painted deserts.

anyway, i'd agree that timing played a big factor in this for me. it hit me at the right time.