I recently read a book called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. It was so good that as soon as I finished it, I started reading it again. Do you ever read something and it puts into words thoughts that you’ve had but could never figure out how to say? That’s what this book did for me. I’m going to copy a chunk that especially stood out to me.
“If I have a hope, it’s that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you.
I’ve wondered, though, if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don’t want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgment. We don’t want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage. And if life isn’t remarkable, then we don’t have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims rather than grateful participants.
But I’ve noticed something. I’ve never walked out of a meaningless movie thinking all movies are meaningless. I only thought the movie I walked out on was meaningless. I wonder, then, if when people say life is meaningless, what they really mean is their lives are meaningless. I wonder if they’ve chosen to believe their whole existence is unremarkable and are projecting their dreary lives on the rest of us.”
And
“Humans are designed to seek comfort and order, and so if they have comfort and order, they tend to plant themselves, even if their comfort isn’t all that comfortable. And if they secretly want for something better.”
I’ve realized that this is what my year is about. This is what my Race is about. I’m rejecting the idea that my life is meaningless. I’m rejecting the idea that I don’t have a role to play in God’s plan. I’m taking responsibility, acknowledging the brilliance of life. I believe that God wrote me into the story, and I plan on enjoying my place in the story. I want to bask in the uncomfortable, seeking something better, moving and breathing and facing conflict with courage.
But it’s not just about this year either. It’s something that carries on throughout my whole life. My life is only meaningless if I allow it to be so. Your life is only meaningless if you allow it to be so. This doesn’t mean that you have to jump up off the couch right now, apply for the Race, and start typing up your support letter. Unless that is what you feel the Lord calling you to do. But maybe you can call up that old friend you haven’t seen in years and get lunch. Or give flowers to someone on the street. Or invite your coworker to church with you. Or sit down and read a good book. Or sit on the porch and take time to drink a cup of coffee and appreciate God’s creation.
The God who created this earth, the dirt, the trees, the birds, everything, created you. He created you to live in this exact moment, to read this exact post, and to do something and have meaning. Sure, I’m the one on the World Race, but you’re the one with equal opportunity to get out of the comfortable, accept your role in God’s plan, and enjoy your place in the story.
