The Last of Through Painted Deserts

I finished Through Painted Deserts weeks ago, but had to post some more excerpts from the end. I love Miller's "seize the day" mentality in this. I think too often we sit around waiting for life to happen to us - anticipating the next big event. Why? Like Miller says, life is now! Live it. Live every moment. Intentionally.

"You feel like life is always leading up to something, but it isn’t. I mean life is just life. It’s all happening right now, and we aren’t going to be any more complete a month from now than we are now. I only say this because I am trying to appreciate everything tonight. I will be leaving soon, and I want to feel this, really understand that it is happening because God breathed some spark into some mud that became us, and He did it for a reason, and I want to feel that reason, not some false explanation." --Donald Miller

At then end of the book (shall I insert a "spoiler alert" here?) Miller and his friend stand looking at these mountains in admiration, and Miller writes the following:

"It is a wonder that those exposed to such beauty forfeit the great questions in the face of this miraculous evidence. I think again about this small period of grace, and thank God for it, that if only for a season, I could feel the why of life, see it in the metaphor of light, in the endlessness of the cosmos, in the miracle of friendship."

I love the outdoors. I grew up camping, and I just can't escape the awesome beauty that one encounters in nature. It's when I'm hiking, when I'm surrounded by mountains, trees, and the permeating silence of nature that always seems to exude a deep, calming peace, that I feel closest to our God. And reading those words, I can just feel the power of that moment by the mountains. And it fills me with joy, peace, and wonder. What an awesome God we serve.

Miller calls his trip a "small period of grace," and it reminds me of a line from the movie Shakespeare in Love when the lead female character describes her romance with Shakespeare as "a stolen season." That's exactly how I felt while backpacking through Europe, and studying in Spain. Both lines are referring to an escape - an escape from routine and the constraints of responsibility, only to discover a resounding joy in new journey. And it makes me want to find that in every day; to remember that, in every day, there exists a new journey, and we have a faithful Savior who is with us every step of the way.