Living a Good Story

Yesterday, I was supposed to work out after work. I was gonna go to this athletic conditioning (i.e. boot camp) class at another branch of the gym i attend, but felt sort of winded and just wasn't up to it. So, because i am rather bored with my life (or have tons of stuff to do that i don't want to) I decided to go to Barnes and Nobles to get a good book to help me escape my own story by jumping into a fictional one. Perhaps this is a consistent theme this week because I also watched 4 1/2 movies on Sunday. After running nearly 9 miles on a whim on Saturday afternoon, i was too tired to do anything else. Anyway i digress.

I went in and immediately saw Donald Miller's book "A Million Miles in A Thousand Years" which i read most of last night and finished it this morning. Its about life as a story. You are the protagonist always in a plot and your goal is to live a good story, make your life meaningful and create memories. Great Book. So my take aways:

1. A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. A great story is about the character(s) sacrificing something great or even approaching very difficult situations (death) to get there.
2. The point of our story is the journey, its about developing the Character. Allowing yourself to face your fears and be transformed.
3. Get off your couch, turn off your TV and begin to make memories for yourself and those around you.
4. Ambitions makes life more meaningful. Have something you are moving toward that makes waking up worthwhile.
5. Living a great story will be hard, but the benefits are worthwhile (greater hope, friends and accomplishments), the alternatives are meaninglessness and time wasting.
6. Do not fear. Conflict and hardships move the plot to the next level. A story with no conflict is a bad and uninteresting story.
7. Its not all about you. God is the Writer, you are "a tree in a story about a forest". Believe that God can write a better story than you. So cooperate with where He is/wants to take your story.
8. God is a great Writer and Story teller, the bible and our lives are sub plots wrapped up in a larger story. So, just as we like to see good and evil, characters overcoming conflict etc in a good movie, we should also accept it as part of the larger story God is writing over human history.
9. In this life we have climaxes, but there will not be an ultimate happy (perfect) ending until Jesus returns.

SO......embrace and live out your story. Make it interesting and meaningful (make good scenes), press into and through conflict, go out on a limb, face your fears, do things you only dreamed of or never thought you could do in a million years, make your dreams a reality and sacrifice makes a story even more compelling.......And when you meet God you can discuss all the memorable moments in your life and hopefully he will say "Well Done."

Be a Good Character by Living a Good Story.