Miller - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

Praise for
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

In his funny, self deprecating style, Donald Miller is sometimes painfully honest about his life unedited, his weaknesses and his faith... and thats all I ever choose to read.

Tony Hale,
Actor, Chuck and Arrested
Development

I love Donald Miller. He is a man after my own heart.

Anne Lamott,
New York Times
best-selling author of
Traveling Mercies, Grace
(Eventually), and Bird by Bird

If someone tells you theyve read this book and they enjoyed it or they liked it or they think its a good book then maybe they didnt read itits well written and funny and interesting and all that, but its also disturbing. Really, really disturbing. Don is into provocative territory here, wrestling with The Story and the role each our stories play in it... this is very convicting, powerful, unsettling writing. I felt like this book read me more than I read it.

Rob Bell,
Author of Velvet Elvis

Ive never been in Donald Millers living room, but this book makes me feel that I have. The stories compel, the humor works, and Dons wisdom stealths its way on to the pages. I already want to re-read it.

MAX LUCADO,
New York Times Best-Selling
Author of 3:16 and Fearless

Sly, soulful, and deeply affecting, Donald Millers A Million Miles ina Thousand Years is an indispensable road map and travel companion for readers seeking not only to experience better stories but to live them as well.

Allan Heinberg,
Executive Producer,
Greys Anatomy

Only Donald Miller can mill the glorious wreckage of the human experience for the hue of jazz and the hope that we can live out a story worth sharing. His premise will haunt you until you set out to discover if memorable lives, like unforgettable books, often require several drafts and a loving editor.

Steve Duin,
The Oregonian

In the first few chapters of Dons new book, Don got me thinking about Don and his interesting life. Then for several chapters, he got me thinking about my own life. And then for the rest of the book, I couldnt help but think about God and other people and the kind of future were creating together. That sounds like solid evidence that this uniquely talented and sagely writer/thinker/storyteller has given us another wonderful and life-enriching reading experience.

Brian McLaren,
Author, Speaker, Activist,
brianmclaren.net

There are some writers who simply dont have it in them to craft an inelegant sentence. Donald Miller is one of them. A Million Miles ina Thousand Years proves in story form how stories define us even more than our genes do. Read this book for an experience of sheer beauty, or for help in living a well-storied life.

Leonard Sweet,
Drew Theological School,
George Fox University,
www.sermons.com

Donald Miller writes, People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to actually live that story. He unpacks what that work looks like and how the story ends! I have great admiration for this storyteller and recommend his latest book with enthusiasm.

Denny Rydberg,
President, Young Life

This book is an invitation. Were taken on a journeyover mountains and water and across America on a bicycle. We find love and pain along the way, we laugh and we mourn. Through it all, we are invited to live a better story.

Jamie Tworkowski,
Founder, To Write Love on
Her Arms, www.twloha.com

Donald Miller looks honestly at his own lifeand as he examines his own story, he has the courage to take risks and do things that matter. Don is a gifted writer not just because of his winsome and engaging wordsbut because he encourages us to examine our own lives. From a cross-country bike ride to a living room editing session, Dons scenes invite us to explore our own stories, wherever they may be taking place. I hope youll take Don up on his challenge and make your own story one worth telling.

Gary Haugen,
President and CEO,
International Justice Mission;
author, Just Courage and
Good News About Injustice

As all great writers do, Dons new book pulls you into his life story without you knowing exactly what is happening to you. You start reading a story about Don and then wake up at the steering wheel saying, What the hell? This story is about me. A Million Miles in a ThousandYears is raw, funny, painful, and honest just like life really is.

Rick McKinley,
Lead Pastor, Imago Dei
Community and Author,
This Beautiful Mess and
The Advent Conspiracy

With great honesty and insight, Don Miller issues a simple and profound challenge: live a better story. In A Million Miles in a ThousandYears Don opens up his life, struggles, triumphs, and insecurities and shows the reader how to do exactly that. The world is full of great challenges, terrible tragedies, and overwhelming joysthere is simply too much going on to be a part of a boring story. For anyone who knows that life should more than what we see on TV commercials and billboards, this is a book for you.

Jim Wallis,
President of Sojourners and
Author of the New York Times
bestseller The Great
Awakening

Readers who loved Blue Like Jazz will find here a somewhat more mature Miller, still funny as hell but more concerned about making a difference in the world than in merely commenting on it.

Publishers Weekly

A MILLION MILES IN A
THOUSAND
YEARS

A MILLION MILES IN A

THOUSAND
YEARS

WHAT I LEARNED WHILE EDITING MY LIFE

DONALD
MILLER

2009 by Donald Miller

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Illustrations by Barak Hardley, 50yearplan.com. Used with permission.

ISBN 978-1-4002-0266-9 (IE)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Miller, Donald, 1971
A million miles in a thousand years : what I learned while editing my life / Donald Miller.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-7852-1306-2
1. Miller, Donald, 1971 2. Christian biographyUnited States.
3. AutobiographyAuthorship. I. Title.
BR1725.M4465A3 2009
277.3'083092dc22
[B]

2009023464

Printed in the United States of America

09 10 11 12 13 QW 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

To Kathryn Helmers, for giving me a
chance to tell my story.

To Tara Brown, for so kindly organizing
my story.

And to Jim Chaffee, for shoving me out
the door to tell it.

You have given my narrative depth and
joy, and I am so grateful.

IF YOU WATCHED a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldnt cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldnt tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record on to think about the story youd seen. The truth is, you wouldnt remember that movie a week later, except youd feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.