A Story

I have now read two amazing books that deal with life as a story. The first one I read some time back it was Epic by John Eldredge the rest of the front cover reads “The story God is telling and the role that is yours to play”. I never really looked at it that way but this book really got me thinking. Really it is truly His story and I should find it a pleasure to be allowed to play a role in that story. It is kind of like getting picked in a school play. Really every role is important even if it is a tree, or some other background character. Now I will never be that lead role in this Epic story of Christ but there is only one person that can play that role and it isn’t you or I, but really how do I make my role in that story be as significant as possible. How can I allow Christ to work in my life so that I will allow Him to make a difference while using me?

This leads me to the second book. Which has boggled my mind and caused me to think totally differently these past couple of months. Written by Don Miller the author of “Blue like Jazz” it is titled “A million Miles in a Thousand Years” which is rated as a top 20 book by Relevant Magazine for 2009 and it was only out for a couple months. Check it out http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/books/features/19434-relevants-best-books-of-2009

Now this book talks all about the story that we are writing in our life. He talks about 2 parts of an Epic story being that the thing a character wants must be hard to attain and that the ambition had to be sacrificial. This makes me think about what in my life is actually hard to attain or am I just going along in life at a cruising speed. I think at first glance I don’t want to be sacrificial about anything, but is that what a relationship with Christ is really about?

As I prepared to move and get married I realized I really hadn’t sacrificed much in my life. Why? Well I look at the things that surrounded me and they just kept piling up. I had so much stuff. I had things for general camping, things for back packing, playing paintball, remote control vehicles, fishing, snowboarding, photography, multiple different sports, and the list could go on. Now really this list is huge when I think about it and did I really sacrifice anything here? Was it really hard to obtain? I don’t think so, I think it all came second nature. If I needed (wanted it) I went and got it. So my challenge to myself has been to be sacrificial in my life as I got married and go forward in my daily relationship with Christ. I want to live to allow the Lord to use me in His Epic Story that led to the ultimate sacrifice.