Life and Such

*insert cliche intro*

Don Miller has become one of my favorite authors of all time. If you haven't read his book "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years", I would strongly, strongly recommend you go out and either buy it or take a trip to your local library and acquire it! I've been writing an article for my college's newspaper, the ClockTower, and it focuses on the impact the book had on my life. Anyways, the book I'm currently engrossed in is the book he wrote before the million miles one, called "Blue Like Jazz". Miller's writing remains simple while at the same time delivering incredibly powerful messages. I relate to him like I never have with another author. The thoughts and feelings he expresses by means of word pictures and such resonate strongly with my brain. If you haven't noticed yet, I think and write in analogies and metaphors all the time. They help me make sense of what I feel.

So in the section I read today in "Blue Like Jazz" (amidst a gold mine of words that left me speechless) he talked about his friend Andrew the Protester who was known for being involved in protests and often experiencing tear gas. He told Miller that what you believe is not what you say. It is what you do. Andrew would also go out and cook for the homeless and those that didn't have food. He'd literally feed the hungry and hang out with them. He would do what he believed.

This made me consider my own lame life. A big thing on my mind has been embracing life and trying to make as many great memories and experiences as I can. Part of that is doing what I believe and such. However, in the daily grind, this becomes difficult. Visions and intentions are lost, put on the back burner. And it sucks. I don't have a rock solid answer of what to do. All I know is that it takes a consistent contemplating. You have to be ready to leap at opportunities when they show up. Of course I'm not telling this just to everyone reading. These are the things I mull over in my own mind and tell myself every single day. It gets old and I ask myself why I make myself "need" to try and do these things. And then I remember... I only live through this life once (Thank God), and I might as well make the best of it. This includes following God's calling and such.

So as I, and hopefully you, Reader, strive to find the big things in life that we're meant to do, keep in mind that the small things matter too. They make memories and keep us young. Whether you're taking a trip on a whim or stepping out of what you're used to, its all important in our grand story. Find something to believe in. What you believe in is what you do. What you do will shape who you are.