donald miller.

If you know me, you know 2 things: 

1. I love to read.
2. I love to read everything Donald Miller writes. 

When I was in high school, I worked at a locally owned coffee shop, which is pretty great, and there was a regular customer that would always come in and read. He carried a book called Blue Like Jazz around with him all the time. So, I would ask about it, and ended up picking up a copy for myself. (I may or may not have called him Donald Miller...and I might or might not still call him that...) I am pretty sure it took me like 3 days to read. Loved it. I immediately went to the bookstore to see if he had written anything else, and I found a book called Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance. It was 99 cents. I would have paid way more, so I was excited. It was re-released as Through Painted Deserts later on. Another book didn't come out until my first year of college, and I've been stuck ever since.

Let me just say, today was a treat. He came to speak at my church, so my best friend Shannon and her sister Dana drove down from NKY to attend with me. We also took the high schoolers there for campaigners for the night service, so I got to hear him twice, which was surprisingly good. I feel like I pulled different things from it each time.

Absolutely what I loved most was when he talked about how becoming a Christian, the conversion part, has this expectation of fixing everything. Because we live in a society so entrenched in commercialism and the desire to be comfortable, we think that accepting Jesus into our lives will automatically be the end all of fulfillment. 

He talked about conflict, and how it is essential to any story that has meaning, and how conflict in our lives is good, because it can be redeemed and used. Our life is not supposed to be perfect. All you have to do is look at the disciples lives, full of conflict following Christ, to know that comfort is not our purpose as Christians. 

Here's my favorite part. The climax of our stories, the part where everything is perfect and fixed and complete, the part we expect at conversion, well...it is still to come. Romans 8:18-23 talks about waiting in eager expectation for the Son of God to be revealed. He's coming back for us as a bridegroom. It's like we are engaged to Christ, and as Miller pointed out, have you ever met an engaged woman who isn't beside herself with excitement? That is where we get to live in the present. In eager expectation for our Lord to come back and redeem this life. The joy in that is indescribable. How amazing is that?

I know I've cut out the parts of his talk leading up to this, so out of context, I might not be making any sense, but you should definitely go to Southland's website and watch. :) Watch the 608 one if you get a choice. I don't know if they tape them all though... 

Anyway...it is nice to be reminded of what we are looking forward to. There is so much that stems out of this truth. You could dive into it for years. 

On a side note, I asked Donald Miller if the part in his new book (about his friend that was promised the best week of her life at a camp) was about YL camp, and he said something like, "Of course, where else could it be?" That made me happy.