CAPTURED

While wondering through a local Wal-Mart I felt the need to purchase some new reading material. I've been reading black love/drama novels for the better part of the past of the past year. In the past I've found such things to be a waste of time and offer little to the human experience. I was a literature snob. I've come to find that I was incorrect in my quick blow off of such works. I've found them to be quite insightful on the human experience. They capture thoughts, motives, emotions, values, and even dreams of many. Despite my enjoyment of such material, I felt the need to return to more meaningful material.

With that in mind, I decided to pick up A million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. I didn't have to go far to be deeply impacted by the book. Contained in the author's note at the beginning of the book is a story about a man that dreams of owning a Volvo. He works his whole life to get this car and finally he does. That's the story. That's it, nothing more. Miller ask if that would make people cry? Of course, that story doesn't make people cry. It's a life without significance. A life of no consequence. Who gives a damn if you bought a Volvo or not? If anything, I would cry out because of the sorrow brought out by the sadness of the story.

It didn't stop there. In the first chapter Miller opens with this, "THE SADDEST THING about life is you don't remember half of it. You don't even remember half of half of it." At this point I was captured. I started to think, "This is my life." I have a tough time remember much of my past. I would gather because so much of it has been insignificant. I suppose I've lost my drive. At one point I had a sense of purpose and meaning. I knew what type of life I wanted. I knew the impact I wanted to have on the world. Somewhere in the midst of the struggle I lost myself.

Mine was not a quest for money or fame. It was a quest for significance in the lives of those around me and beyond for good. I want to return to such a focus. I want to impact people in such a way that it impacts others in there lives. I don't want to add, I want to multiply in an exponential way...goodness. I've got thoughts and ideas on how to do this. I've just got to put hand to plow and get on with it. I've got to do something. The meaningless of life lived for such frivolous things has captured me. I must break free.