I just finished a book called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. Such a great book. It’s about how to tell a good story, but it’s also more than that. It’s about living a good story.
It turns out what makes a story worth telling is also what makes a life worth living.
Is my life a story I would even enjoy reading?
That is a question I never asked myself until last year. I knew something was wrong but I didn’t know what. But I know what it was know. I was not content with the story I was living. It wasn’t what I imagined and it definitely wasn’t what I wanted.
That very fact pierced my heart and seared my soul.
That’s what it took to wake myself up and realize that I’m a crap storyteller. You have to be honest with yourself if you want to grow.
I remember summer camp a few years ago. I was about to be a sophomore in high school and I thought I knew everything. The pastor had just given a sermon on stories.
He asked us, “What story are you writing with your life? Is it better than the story that God could write with your life?” Those are really powerful questions and I realized that I didn’t want to write my own story anymore.
I decided to stop writing my own story and to hand the pen to Jesus.
I can’t honestly say I knew exactly what that meant then nor can I really say I fully do now. But this is what I do know. God is a much better storyteller than I am.
One of Don’s friends described the basic structure of a story as
“A character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.”
Sounds good to me. Now picture the gospel through the lens of this definition. God wanted to share his love so he created us and overcame sin and death to do it. To write a story is to bring something into existence, so in essence God is the first storyteller and the author of the best choose your own adventure book ever written.
Stories all come down to relationships. And if life is like a story then that means that life is all about relationships. And don’t all healthy relationships revolve around love? I don’t think it is too much of a leap to say that life is all about love then.
I realized that last year. I knew it was the truth and I knew that my life didn’t reflect that truth. This is what Don said about that.
“Once you know what it takes to live a better story, you don’t have a choice. Not living a better story would be like deciding to die, deciding to walk around numb until you died.”
He also said that “People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen.”
To live a good story, you have to have dreams. You have to want something. You need ambitions. You won’t accomplish anything if you don’t set yourself towards the horizon and get a move on. It doesn’t have to be something crazy, but the harder it is, the more you will grow, and the more worthwhile it will be when you reach your destination. I’m not here to tell you what your ambitions should be, but having ambitions is a good place to start.
One of my favorite authors ever is Bob Goff. He wrote the book called Love Does. Donald Miller actually writes about how he became friends with Bob in his book. And this is what he said was the key to living a good story.
“We shouldn’t be afraid to embrace whimsy…it’s that nagging idea that life could be magical; it could be special if we were only willing to take risks.”
Bob and his real life stories inspired me to truly live and to love, and they inspired Donald Miller as well. Sorry this blog is a little longer than I intended it to be, but I don’t want to leave anything out.
One of my favorite stories in Don’s book is when he met Bob Goff. They were canoeing and the passed by his house and he invited all of them in for lunch. He didn’t even know any of them! He told them stories and asked about what they were doing and their own adventures they’d been on.
What stood out to me the most is how they said goodbye though. Don and his canoeing buddies where rowing away from their house when he saw Bob, his wife, and his three kids standing on the dock.
“And then to our amazement, we saw all of them, fully dressed with shoes and jackets, take three steps together and jump into the water, coming up and waving and shouting their good-byes.”
I read that and it just made me happy. There is a certain feeling I get when I see or read about people living life to the full. It’s very subtle but overpowering at the same time. It’s like getting a glimpse at how things were always meant to be. I find myself back in the real world, feeling normal, and wondering if I’m not the crazy one for standing on the dock each day instead of letting go of fear and just jumping into the wonderful possibilities that a little risk brings life.
Before deciding to go on the world race I was bitter and a little angry. Community college is not a great environment for growth, at least mine wasn’t. But I had a speech class that I absolutely loved and we were given the assignment to give a persuasive speech on any topic we wanted. I decided to give a speech on why everyone should have dreams. I ended my speech with this spoken word, and I think it fits perfectly with living a good story:)
Reclaiming Your Life
My dream is a fixed image in my mind
So why is it so easy then to forget how to try
I take step after step toward that single goal
But find out I’m only stepping backwards into one of society’s roles
When did people stop living for the adventure of life
And instead started drudging through day after day of 9 to 5
Your job is something you should be passionate about
Why spend day after day doing something you would rather live without
I’m told to go to class to get a good career
As if a career will make a reason for living suddenly appear
I sit in class as my teachers go on and on
But I can’t help but feel like I’m following the rhythm to the wrong song
I feel my heart beat in my chest
And it won’t let me rest
Lest I don’t do my best On yet another test
But an A, B, C, or D
Won’t suddenly make it all matter to me
Because life isn’t a test as much as a book
And if your story was written down would anyone even want to look
Every dreamer has a dream
They make the unseen seen
And they are the ones who are remembered when the others cease to be
So dream while you still have time
And run after it like a runner after the finish line
So when you’re at the end of your life
And it’s time to resign
You can look back at your story proudly and say “that was mine”
