The book is about living out a great story. Since I'm always trying to live out my own personal "movie," I totally related to this. Basically, he's approached by movie producers who want to make a film about his memoir, and he realizes that his life is actually quite boring, as they are having to add story elements to make a better picture.
A lot of things stood out to me about this book, and I thought I'd share some of them.
In grand Donald Miller style, he is very open about his feelings. No holding back. He shares how when going through a hard situation, God allowed him to be numb long enough for the initial shock to wear off, and then he had one big night where he bore the brunt of it all, and then he was fine. I've been there. It's such a gift the way God carries us through those situations. I've had many of them in the last year or so, and this take on it stood out to me.
He spends most of the book trying to do things that make is life more interesting and eventful. He takes on endeavors he never thought he could handle, to add that element of conflict to his story. He builds up to them well. This is something I feel we could all use a little more of. Pushing ourselves to the limit. We are daily facing conflict, but how many of those conflicts are significant? I know most of mine are not.
He also points out that in stories, there is always a resolution to the conflict, but in life, there often is not, and we simply have to move on to the next story. The next scene in the grand picture. I recently thought to myself, before I went on this whole "romantic fast" thing, that I felt like I was living out a movie and I was just waiting on the "ending" where everything is good. In a movie, you know that it will end in some sort of resolution that is exciting and inspirational. It got my hopes up.
The problem was, I wasn't looking for God's resolution, I was looking for my resolution. Now, I'm realizing that the only person who knows the right ending is him. When we are waiting out our own stories, we are not always enjoying the ride. We are complaining that we aren't at the end yet. Why is it that we can sit through a 2 hour movie and not be waiting for the conflict to be over, but we can't do the same in life.
Enjoy the drama. Enjoy the ups and downs. Realize that God has an ending for you that will blow your mind in a way that no film ever could. God resolves. Allow him to do so. In the process, allow him to prepare you for it.
On that note, read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.
No comments:
Post a Comment