My friend Angela Todd is an interior designer who read A Million Miles a few weeks ago. The book caused her to reflect on her story, and because she has something of an entrepreneurial spirit, she decided to start telling a better story with her life. Specifically, she decided to start creating more memorable scenes. Some other friends were at the house and we were working on a video and Angela told us of her weekend visit to a local fountain with her nieces. They were all playing in the fountain, and Angela was sitting on a chair, wearing a sundress and a large hat, reading a book. Then she decided to do something a little crazy. My friend asked Angela to sit down in front of the camera and recall the story. I thought the story was pretty great. I hope you’re creating some memorable scenes in your life, too. Here you go: Angela from Donald Miller on Vimeo. A friend reflects on creating a memorable scene. On September 26th and 27th, about 400 folks who’ve read A Million Miles are descending on Portland for the Living a Better Story Seminar. We are pretty excited about the event, and [...]
A good friend and I were hanging out the other day and she asked about church, if I went, where I went and so on. That’s a blog for another day, or perhaps a book, or perhaps a few slips of paper put into a wooden box and then buried. My friend had recently had a baby, and I asked her if having a child made her want to attend church more. I was surprised when she answered that it did not. My friend grew up in an extremely conservative family in a conservative small town and attended a conservative church. She said, rather surprisingly, that she didn’t want her child to grow up constantly being taught how “other people” were different, learning to see the “unlike me” in the people around him. In part, I completely understand how my friend feels. But I’d not lump that characteristic in with the church as I’d lump it in with all of humanity. There are pockets of people who do not seem to make a big deal out of the differences in others as much as the similarities, but those pockets are few, and some of them are part of the church [...]
Today I get to drive north to Canada and join some friends as we travel up to Bob Goff’s lodge. I tell the story of Bob in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Actually, I only tell part of Bob’s story. Most of Bob’s story is too unbelievable to relay in a book and have anybody actually believe any of it. I met Bob while kayaking about 50 miles from the nearest road. He’d built a beautiful lodge near a Young Life camp where he could practice hospitality with the staff at Young Life and also entertain world leaders. It was an accidental meeting, but it was one of those accidents that explodes blessings into your life. I think Bob is probably the most influential person in my adult life. His faith knows no bounds. I want to tell you a little about him because the more Bob stories I hear, the more it makes me want to live an exceptional life. Without Bob, I doubt Million Miles would have ever been written, because I doubt I would have ever realized how remarkable life can actually be. Here are just some tip of the iceberg “facts” about Bob. He [...]
I’ll be out of cell phone range and won’t have internet access all week, so I’m featuring the “best of the blog.” Of the hundreds of entries, these are the ones that got the most comments, twitter shares and facebook shares. I’ll be sharing three articles each day this week. I hope you like perusing the archives! Leaders Aren’t Cynical, The Character Trait that Might be Holding You Back Cynicism and immaturity go hand in hand. Cynicism is, essentially, the desire to disassociate or the fear of associating with something that might not work or isn’t fashionable. But leaders can’t afford to be cynical. How to Change a Negative Character Trait Trying to lose weight, start exercising or stop talking about people behind their backs? Making a hard-lined commitment may not work. But this technique just might. The Problem with Black and White Thinking Is there an absolute truth? Absolutely. But is life black and white? Certainly not. Black and white thinking is a sign of a brain that is not fully developed, and yet more and more of our culture thinks in either/or propositions, and these people are drawn to the church because it gives them a code by [...]
My friend Shauna Niequist has a book coming out and I asked her if I could feature an excerpt. The book is Bitter Sweet, thoughts on Change, Grace and Learning the Hard Way. Congrats on the new book, Shauna. Here you go: My best friend Annette and I laid on our towels until we realized that someone was standing in our sun. We squinted up at a big man with a big camera wearing a Girls Gone Wild hat. He told us that if we went out in the water and kissed and took off our bikini tops, he’d give us each a hat. We stared up at him. Where to start, really? We sputtered out unrelated phrases like, “Um, those are our husbands, right there in the water …” and, “You know, that’s not really our deal …” and, “Uh, we’re like a lot older than you think we are …” Finally, we gave up explaining and said, “No, thank you. No. No, thank you.” He shuffled away, and a few minutes later, there were lots of girls in the water, kissing and taking their tops off. Huh. Questions abound. Our first question: “Wait—did he really think we were [...]
