Story

The idea of life as a story has been swirling around for... a year or two now. Donald Miller gave a sermon at Imago Dei a couple years back about life being a story and accepting the whole of you life. He's written a book and has been blogging about living a better story. And thinking in those terms brings a couple truths.

I know personally and I'd think a lot of people spend some amount of their time thinking about how life could be different. I've wasted far too many thoughts on how I could've changed things or done life differently. And the problem is, it doesn't do me one bit of good. I can't change my mistakes, failings, or things I don't like about my past. What's happened has happened and there's no going back and fixing my past failings.

The idea of life as a story puts me at a crossroad. Honestly I'm not thrilled with where my life is at the moment and really how I've gotten here. And although things are turning around and change is happening, there's still choices to make. As the character in my story what happens next is yet to be written. Which excites me.

Knowing that my story isn't finished and the ending hasn't been written yet. The idea that there's still a chance for redemption and a happy ending and good things.

Trying to live with the fact that what has happened in the past and my life up to now is what will shape who I am and who I'll become isn't easy. There are still things I'm ashamed about and I regret. But without what's happened, I couldn't be shown God's grace and the change in the story wouldn't be so radical and amazing. I think sometimes God needs us to fail so we can see him and he can get the glory for the change in our lives.