Your Story Matters

In 2009, I read a book by Donald Miller called, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. He tells a story about being a New York Times best selling author and yet, even as a Christian, something was missing. Life was unfulfilling.

He was contacted by a movie producer who wanted to make a movie about his previous book, Blue Like Jazz, except they needed to fictionalize the main character, him, because the real Don was too boring. Can you imagine?

In the process of making the movie, he asked this question: “What if the elements that are used to make a great movie and tell a great story were actually the same elements that make a great life? What if by changing the way I live, I could live a better story for God?”

A Million Miles is the book that answers that question. And I can’t recommend it enough. I don’t know about you, but I have felt like Don at times: My life is boring, and something is missing.

Six years ago, I was a stay at home mom, and my job was to keep my boys from killing themselves and each other. I cleaned messes, broke up fights, did loads of laundry, kept grocery stores and gas stations in business, and cooked meals they didn’t eat. My days were mundane, and I found myself asking, “Does my life even matter? Is THIS the life God has called me to? Because I wanted the fairy tale. I wanted to be Julie Andrews, dancing through Austria singing “The Hills are Alive!” as my children danced behind me in those awesome overall shorts. Instead, I was Bill Murray in Groundhog day, living the same dreaded day, over and over and over and over…

I talked with others who felt the same. Life was unfulfilling in a variety of ways: same old job, same relationship problems, same diet that didn’t work, and the same faith that wasn’t growing. A sense of surviving and not thriving.

John 10:10 says Jesus “came that they may have life and have it to the FULL.” So why was I was FAMISHED? And why were so many others feeling the same?

How do we live better stories? Stories connect us, teach us, entertain us, inspire and encourage us. Don’t we just love to hear a great story? Isn’t this why we read good books and go to the movies?

If someone says to us, “You’ll never believe what happened to me today,” we lean in and can’t wait to hear.

What if we lived such great stories with our lives that others were leaning in to connect?

What if our stories actually mattered?

What if our stories revealed something about God?

“God is not merely the Creator of our life. He is also the Author of our life, and He writes each person’s life to reveal HIS divine story...God writes the story of my life to make something known about Himself...Your life and mine not only reveal who we are, but they also help reveal who God is.” --Dan Allender, To Be Told

Isn't that awesome?!?

I recently accepted a new position at Fremont Christian School as their high school chapel coordinator, and I’m excited to teach these students that their story matters. And so does yours. Let’s tell awesome stories with our lives so we can introduce the world to the Author of their story.

Join me here in the following weeks to learn more about living a great story, because YOUR STORY MATTERS!

Psalm 139:10 “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”