The Face of the Journey It Took

Don Miller is one of my favorite authors*.

I like him because he is honest and he somehow makes this honesty beautiful; makes shards look like more than just broken bits of 2 cent pottery. He writes with a lot of grace.

On his blog he is giving away a podcast of a lecture he did on the power of story and I’ve been listening to it in bits and pieces while I work. Today I heard him talk about conflict in story; how conflict can create the beauty and worth of the prize because of the journey it takes to get there.

Don told a story of hiking Machu Picchu. His guide pointed toward one trail and said, “If we took this trail we could get to the lost city Machu Picchu in 5, maybe 6 hours. This afternoon we could arrive. But we are not taking that trail.” And the guide pointed at the trail leading up a 21,000 ft mountain. He said, “For the next two days, we are going to climb 13,000 ft, we are going to have to get our bodies out of the altitude very quickly. We will camp at a low altitude and then climb another 12,000 feet before we do 9 miles of stairs to the lost city. We are going to do this over the next four days. It will be excruciating.”

The reason the Incas make people take the long journey through the mountains is because they want them to value and appreciate the city when they get there; if they didn’t go through pain, through conflict, they wouldn’t respect the city. Machu Picchu is special because it took real work to see it through.

How beautiful and true. I identify with this and I know that at the end of my conflicts the resolution is that much sweeter, in the face of the journey it took to get there. I often want things easily and quickly but value isn’t found in those drive-thru words.

*In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I have a huge crush on Don Miller and do still hold out the hope that one day we will meet and he will fall madly in love with me. Hey, a girl can hope.