Donald Miller's Blog, page 149

The Greatest Impact You Have May Come out of Your Pain

Have you ever met somebody who has been hurt, wrongfully hurt and is bitter about it? It's difficult to have compassionr, even though they have a right and reason to be bitter. We may want justice for them, and may even have empathy, but there is something imperfect about the story. And yet I find bitterness is easy when I've been wronged. Vengeance is a normal reaction, it seems, a human reaction. What else are we supposed to to with our pain?

Years ago I read a book called Country of my...

The Problem with Black and White Thinking

Generally speaking, you are either a Republican or Democrat, a Calvinist or Armenian, you either believe we are shaped by nature or nurture, you either like Neil Diamond or you don't, and even as you're read this, you either agree with the statements I just made or you disagree. We think Fox News is brainwashing or truth-telling, we are Democratic or Marxists, evolutionists or creationists? There is either right or wrong, good or bad, beautiful or profane, right?

Such thinking wouldn't make...

What's Coming Up on the Blog This Week?

I'm enjoying the direction the new blog is going. Forcing myself to tackle an issue or share some bit of life each day has been a terrific exercise in both writing and thinking. And I've enjoyed our dialogue, as well. I try to chime in once or twice per blog, but I read every comment. Thanks for your interest. Here is what's coming up this week:

Monday: How I Learned to Like Exercise, and Some Other Things Too

On Monday I'll look at the problem of black-and-white thinking and how it stunts...

How to Change a Negative Character Trait

Years ago I read a little psychology book by Don Riso and Russ Hudson about personality types, a topic I geek out on, to be honest. The book talked about the character faults of different personalities, and as I read my own, I became a bit dismayed. I wondered how I could change negative characteristics that seemed to be interwoven in my DNA. How would I change who I seemed to be in my core.

There are spiritual answers to this question, of course, but I am talking about something more...

The Single Most Powerful Question You Can Ask

When novelists sit down to write a narrative, there is a single question they ask themselves in order to create exciting and meaningful stories, and that same question applies to life. That question is: What if?

J.R.R. Tolkien once asked the question What if there existed a place called Middle Earth, and What if Middle Earth were under threat? Every good story begins with some form of this question, and so does every life.

Whenever a novel starts to drag, the writer simply has to ask this...

Read These Seven Books, and You'll be a Better Writer

I used to play golf but I wasn't very good. I rented a DVD, though, that taught me a better way to swing, and after watching it a few times and spending an hour or so practicing, I knocked ten strokes off my game. I can't believe how much time I wasted when a simple DVD saved me years of frustration. I'd say something similar is true in my writing career. If you read these books, your writing will improve to the point people who read your work will begin to comment on how well you write...

Leaders aren't Cynical, The Character Trait That Might be Holding You Back

If I've a primal sin, it's cynicism. I don't normally make fun of people (I got too much of that in elementary school and am sensitive to it) but man do I roll my eyes a lot. I roll my eyes when things get mushy. Every girlfriend I've ever had has, at one time or another, become frustrated when I started making jokes as the conversation became too intimate. I'm only thankful the jokes were actually funny (if you laugh, you can't also be angry, right?) Ultimately, this sort of thing is...

Why it Hurts When Somebody Forgets Your Name. A Christian Perspective.

Yesterday I fired off an e-mail to a friend, only in the e-mail I referred to him by another name. I'd been e-mailing a few guys at the same time and slipped up. My friend e-mailed me back, joking with me, and in a subsequent e-mail, he called me Dan. And even though I'd been the one to first make the mistake, and even though my friend knows and loves me, seeing my name misspelled still stung a little bit. My first thought was that it stung because I was arrogant, after all, I did deserve...

Nella's Beautiful Story

Since Million Miles came out about six months ago, It's been an honor to hear the many stories of what people have done with their lives after reading the book. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard. But there is another kind of story I find equally as inspiring, and it's the story of people who've encountered hardships and yet have found beauty in the midst of their pain. I first read Kelle and Brett Hampton's story when my assistant forwarded me a link to her blog. The subject line...

If it Weren't For God, You'd be More Efficient

Every morning, when it isn't cloudy, I've got a pretty good view of sunrise out my windows. I don't pull down the shades, so the light wakes me up. It all happens so slow, so effortless and it reminds me that very little that I'm worried about actually matters. I love that God stops our progress, makes our physical bodies go into a temporary coma, then wakes us up again so we can get a little more work done. I used to have a ferret that ran around my room (and when he got out, the house) for ...