A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.... and then some

I love to read books that make my neck ache as I read each page, nodding in astounding agreement or shaking my head in disgust at the frailties of this life.  Books with purpose - fiction or non - that deliver a story that requires something of me.  I don't like to read romance novels or magazine articles on Better Homes (although I do like the pictures!) - I think it is mostly because I don't want to live a life that looks like that.  Kind of like the addage that a dog looks like its owner - I think I am afraid if I read it, it reflects the darker parts of my soul that I don't want to commit or admit to.

But I do love a good story.  And if it is a story that can be put to song and be called a musical -even better! In fact, I can remember my senior year of college I lived with three other girls in a glorified trailer on the campus of Azusa Pacific University and once a week we would have "musical" day.  It rocked!  The rule was that you had to sing everything you were going to say for the day.  Really, it was brilliant!  I wish my life looked more like a musical... and even as a young girl I can remember sitting in the backseat of the car on long trips staring out the window and picturing myself as the lonely or perplexed ingenue being followed by a camera just outside the car window as quiet violin music played softly in the background.  Yeah, so I'm a bit dramatic and always have been - but my point is, a good story is important to me.

I just read a book that took a beautiful look at living a good story and the elements that create that in a person's life.  The book was "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" and it wasn't until the final few pages that I began to realize why I appreciate a well defined story so much.  The author spoke of not wondering anymore what he'll tell God when he gets to heaven.  That he knows now that it will include specific pictures of the journey of his life where the author saw God revealed: he said to him he can see the conversation at the end of His life with God revealed through glimpses of when he took chances and lived extraordinary moments in an ordinary life.  I looove that!  And then he said at the end of the conversation with God that He pictures God hugging Him and it will be at that point that he won't be thirsty anymore.

And I started thinking about what makes my story signficant.  It's true, not everything is going to be signficant.  Life is quiet and dull and mundane much of the time.  But thinking back can quench that thirst for the other side of glory for me sometimes.  To remember what God has done, where I have walked with Him, the people He has used to reach me or teach me something - these things are worth remembering... I'm going to begin to record these moments - right now, I'm going to do it for me but I may share them as a post at some point.  Will you join me and take some time to remember when God has allowed you to take chances and live extraordinary moments in your life?