Your Story is Your Life

What if you decided to edit your life to make it a better story?

Today I was listening to a podcast entitled, “Your Story is your Life” by one of my favorite authors, Donald Miller. I highly recommend purchasing and listening to this talk, but, if you want a good summary of what he is talking about, visit Donald Miller's blog. In this talk, he asks the question- If my life was a movie, would anyone want to watch it? Or would it bore them to tears? And as I was listening to him ask these questions, I kept feeling challenged by a question of my own...

What if my story needs to be told?

For two months my friends have been encouraging me to write my thoughts out in the form of a blog. I have hesitated for a few reasons-

1.      Narcissism- In our culture today, we have a thousand different ways to say what we think about life- blogs, facebook, twitter. We can comment on any article ever written, with little to no consequences. We say things online that we would NEVER say to a friend, or in the context of a conversation. While in many ways our online existence is a blessing in communication, I think one of the negative side effects of this technology is that we have become more and more narcissistic. We seem to think that our opinion on issues actually matters more than others, and the end result- we love a little less. We become a bit more self-righteous. We stop listening to others and understanding them.

2.      I am not a writer. Some people truly have a gift with words- I realize I am not one of them.

3.      I struggle with discipline. The idea of committing to doing something every week is difficult for me to imagine accomplishing.

But, if I am going to be honest, the main reason that I have not written this a long time ago is because I have been afraid to be vulnerable. And what can be more vulnerable than sharing your thoughts with the whole world? The very thing that I criticize so often is the thing I am most afraid to do. I have to take responsibility for my opinions, thoughts, and actions. If I write something, it forces me to think through what I really think about it, and take ownership of my own opinion. And I could be wrong. People could judge me. Or worse, misunderstand me. And I HATE being wrong, judged, or misunderstood.

In his podcast, Donald Miller discusses the elements that make up a good story- a character that wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. He says that the thing that holds us back from living better stories is FEAR. Specifically, fear of conflict. Somehow this theme seems to keep coming up in my life lately. What I want more than anything in the world is to be a joyful, loving, and whole human being. I want my life to bless others. And I want to overcome my fear. Scripture tells us that “Perfect love casts out all fear.” Well, you can’t cast out fear without facing it- experiencing the conflict. So here I am. Facing my fear. I guess I’ll just consider this blog as an exercise in perfect love.