Call Me Donna
"Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons."
Before commenting on this quote, can I just say that I love Donald Miller? Almost everything he writes sounds off a gong inside me that resonates long and loud. Reading one sentence after another, I keep thinking, "I wish I wrote that!" In fact, I want to write like that. I´m not some freaked out fan, but I want to be the next Donald Miller..except you´d have to call me Donna.
The thought of leaving is terrifying to some. It was the last thing on my mind when I was younger, but now I can´t imagine staying in the same place for my entire life! I´m sure that many of my friends and family will disagree with me, but I don´t think you can really love home unless you leave it for a time. I love Dundas, Ontario, Canada more these days than I ever have. In a similar way, my affection for Cochabamba and Bolivia has become more profound. When you are away from a place or people, the heart sharpens it´s ability to love deeply and from the heart.
The concept of home is complex. My home is thousands of miles north at the moment, but I feel at home here. Jesus says that when we believe in him, he makes his home with us. I am home to the Spirit of Christ. I feel at home wherever I find myself. Larry Norman sang, and others repeat, "This place is not my home, I´m only passing through." I believe that earth is our home, but it´s condition makes us long for the day when Christ returns to do a little "housekeeping" and make the whole place new.
"And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home....It may be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out. I want to repeat one word for you:
Leave
....Don´t worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed." -Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts
posted by FFG @ Wednesday, November 16, 2005
3 comments
3 Comments:
I also love donald miller and have read all his books... i like most of his stuff... i'm going to hear him speak in a few months and emailed him to see if i could take him out for coffee. I was rejected and no longer feel at home. All of this is true but the home comment, that is false. I just needed to say something about home... I have a song called Foreigner that talks alot about that kinda thing... it's probably similar to the Larry Norman song, although I've never heard the Larry Norman song. Good blog.
Larry doesn´t actually sing those words, he bemoans the state of the world and then speaks them at the end.
I can´t believe Don turned down the canadian yogger, no worries, I´ll talk to him and see what I can do. ;)
What are the lyrics to Foreigner?
I, too was blown away by the new intro that he added to his first book. Miller is a great writer. We would probably disagree on an theological issue here or there, but his personal experience with his faith and his ability to translate that into word pictures resonates for me in a way no other writer has.
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