Donald Miller Live

It's not every day that you have the opportunity to sit within the spittal range of one of your favorite authors. I just returned from an evening with Donald Miller, where I surprisingly found a front row seat along with two friends.

Don discussed the themes of his newest book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, as well as the vision of The Mentoring Project, a non-profit created to organize the Church to meet the needs of the fatherless generation in America.

Don talked about the four central components of every story: a character, the object of desire, the conflict and resolution (or attainment of desired object). He argues that our brains necessarily organize our thoughts into story form; narrative is a natural part of our existence. And every narrative has conflict.

Don camped here for a while. Conflict. We hate it. Advertising tells us to do everything we can to soothe it or avoid it. But change does not come without conflict. In fact, Donald pointed out, there was even conflict before the Fall of Man. Adam could not find a helpmate suitable for himself. Read: there was no one like his species on the planet. After naming all the animals for years and years, he noticed that he was alone as a human.

Donald also discussed the insanity of our belief that the climax of our story is our personal conversion to Christ. If that were the climax, then why do we still have bad days? Better yet, the climax is the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, when Christ will renew all things and we will live the eternal Celebration in God's presence.

Conflict is normal. The climax is coming. That's what makes us unique as the Body of Christ. We hope.

Thanks, Don.