I read this book recently called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, by Donald Miller. Basically, he tells us about the time some guys from Hollywood wanted to make a movie based on his life.
The question Donald Miller asks us is this: “What kind of story are we living with our lives? And if someone made a movie about us, would they walk away inspired or just shrug their shoulders?” You see, Miller discovered that the same elements that make a movie meaningful, make a life meaningful.
So what’s the definition of a good story? A good story involves a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it…
So this is often what happens. We start off in life confident, hopeful, full of big dreams, and we don’t know any better, right? We try out for the team or audition for that play. We get to know others of different ethnicities, we commit our lives to God and get baptized, we raise money for a mission trip, we graduate from high school and move away to college with big dreams to do big things for God. Maybe we give our hearts away and get married and get that job we always wanted and move to that place we always wanted to live in. Maybe we have kids and we dream about raising them in a certain way so they can dream big too…
So we start off serving God and taking chances and risks. We are living a good story because we want to serve God and we’ll overcome conflict to honor and please Him…and then something happens…
Maybe we don’t make the team. Maybe that scholarship doesn’t happen. Maybe those different people we tried to love didn’t love us back. Maybe we lost that job or didn’t even get it to begin with. Maybe we couldn’t get that house in that neighborhood. Maybe we find ourselves barely making it financially. Maybe we get divorced or our parents get divorced. Maybe a loved one dies too young. Maybe we ask God for something and we hear nothing back.
I think this is when most people give up on their stories. They get into the middle and discover it was harder than they thought. As Donald Miller says, “They can’t see the distant shore anymore, and they wonder if their paddling is moving them forward. None of the trees behind them are getting smaller and none of the trees ahead are getting bigger. They take it out on their spouses, and they go looking for an easier story.”
So our good story, one of engaging challenges and doing things for God and dreaming big starts fading. And we get a little worried and maybe a little scared. Things get a little rocky and unstable and we say, “Ok, that was nuts. I don’t want to live like that. I’ll just have my nice little family and we’ll keep to ourselves and make our kids wear helmets everywhere.”
We just want to live in this safety zone and we end up not wanting to do anything crazy for God. Maybe we go to church and tithe and volunteer, but that’s it.
Miller says, “Not living a better story is like deciding to die, deciding to walk around numb until you die, and it’s not natural to want to die.”
And after living our safe, predictable, risk-free, calculated, gated-community kind of story, our wish comes true and we die peacefully and painlessly in our sleep and show up at the gates of Heaven and present ourselves to our Creator. What will God tell us about our story? I don’t think He’ll congratulate us for living the safest, most conflict-free life possible.
But imagine if we sat with God for hours beside a tree and reminisced together about all those times conflict and challenges came and how we didn’t try to dodge them, but we engaged them and trusted Him through them? And we’d laugh and thank Him for allowing us to go through those times because it refined us and made us more complete and more prepared for Heaven…
So, what kind of story are we living with our lives? A story full of risk, initiative, whimsy, love, and embracing conflict OR a story about ease, safety, old habits, selfishness and avoiding conflict. As believers, as followers of the One who lived the greatest story, we are called to speak a better story. How brightly a better story shines.
Jesus was a character who wanted something and overcame conflict to get it. And His story shined brightest…
What did He want? Our hearts.
What was the conflict? Our sin.
How did He overcome it? By living a sinless life and laying down His life.
May His story be our story. And when conflict and challenges and storms come, may we know He has been there.
And He is there.