I have traveled to over seven countries this year. I have set foot on three continents. I have met so many people. And you want to know something that I cannot shake? That no matter where you go, how old you are, what you look like, or what you buy or consume, what you eat or weigh, what you do or what you don’t do, none of it will ever satisfy you.
You know that saying, “you won’t know what something or someone means to you until they’re gone.” Well, I think this saying is true. I think it rings true for so many people because we live striving for something. We live our lives acting like we are preparing for this great turn of events or the climax of our lives. We think that ourday to day lives are not enough. We think the days that pass us by are just a waste of time until, what?
We get the job we want? We get married? We graduate college? What is it?
I think so many people want those questions answered. Actually, not all of those questions— they just want the one question: when will I (or my life) be enough?
Growing up, I loved reading books. I remember as a kid my dad and mom would take turns reading a story to me each night before bed. As I got older, I started to read stories to myself, sometimes into the depths of the night. I would lie awake in my bed getting lost in the pages of Harry Potter or some other book that I couldn’t put down. Reading was my favorite thing because it gave me a sense of adventure. It gave me a sense of purpose. It gave me what I really was looking for… a story.
I think that’s why a lot of people like books or movies because we secretly admire how these characters develop over time and find their purpose. Something that we so LONG for.
So I am brought back to my original question: when will I (or my life) be enough?
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A few years ago, I read a book by one of my favorite authors; his name is Donald Miller, and he wrote the book, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years,” and it was one of the most real and vulnerable books I have read. In his book, he writes about his experience being the author of a best-selling book, “Blue Like Jazz,” and how he fell into a period in his life where he questioned what the purpose of life was.
Writers, like myself, love to look at life as though it were a plot line. In literary terms, a story plot consists of five different factors: the exposition, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. It is easy to look at life through this perspective when everywhere around us, society is telling us to live up to our full potential. But what is our full potential?
I have always wondered this question.
Donald Miller does an excellent job telling his audience that we as humans never really reach a ‘full potential,’ but that the greatest story to ever be told is the one that we are living.
I am reminded of this book as I am sitting here in a coffee shop in Nepal recounting these past seven months, and how for the first time in my life I am enjoying being present. I am enjoying the story that I am living. That I am living the greatest story ever told because it is MINE, and it is written by the greatest author of all time: God.
So, I don’t really know where this blog is going, but as I sat here pondering what to write, I heard God telling me to write to you all about how even though I am on the World Race, that it doesn’t make my story or my life better or more interesting than the one that you are living.
The truth is, all of our lives are stories just waiting to be lived out, but sadly, we spend most of our time waiting. We just wait. Until… well who knows what!
So my prayer for all of you is to realize that your life— your day to day life— is the greatest story of all time because it is YOURS. It is your story written by a majestic and amazing God. But the only way to truly find purpose, is to follow the one who gave it purpose: Jesus.
So wake up! Get out! Pray and start living!!!! We are called to follow Him, and he already called us.
So, what are you waiting for?
“A good storyteller doesn’t just tell a better story, though. He invites other people into the story with him, giving them a better story too.” -Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand
