The Author of Life
If we want our lives to one day be told as great stories, we need to spend time with Jesus, the author of life and master storyteller.
I recently read Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years on the recommendation of a reprobate friend of mine. Miller speaks about his early years of adulthood being a time of sedateness, comfort, and fear.
He then discovered the idea that we all have the ability to live a better story. Miller says that a good story is when a character wants something and will overcome conflict to get it… “I was a character who wanted something, and, well, that’s half the battle.”
The main point he makes is that it is up to us to lead lives that will one day be told as great stories to excited grandchildren. “Good stories don’t happen by accident, I learned. They are planned.” Throughout the book, Miller refers to God as the master storyteller.
I recently read Peter saying this in the book of Acts: “You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead.”1
Of Jesus’ many names, author has to be one of the most enigmatic and beautiful. He is called this on two other occasions in the Bible:
“… it was fitting that God… should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.”2
“… let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”3
When I think of the giants in the Bible who lived great stories – Moses, Abraham, David, Esther, and Christ Himself – I can’t imagine them sitting down and saying, “I need to plan a good story.”
While I do agree with Mr Miller that we need to plan great stories, I think that they arise more from a closeness with God. If we are close to the Author of Life, our stories will be written in His book. If we are close to the Master Storyteller, our stories are bound to be riveting.
Miller says, “The ambitions we have will become the stories we live.” These giants had giant ambitions to love God, and this led to great stories.
I have recently been praying for serendipity in my life. I pray this because the Bible is full of great stories, and Jesus is the author of life who wants us to run the race marked out for us. The word race invokes something of a great story.
I often look at my own life and the lives of other Christians and wonder who we are inspiring with our lives. Who is looking at us and thinking, “I want to know how they do it… I want to know what drives them… I want to know what they onto.”
Our desire to live greater stories should stem from our desire to bring glory to the Author. We must want to show others that life with Him is a greater story.
Miller says that the real challenge in living a great story is overcoming fear. When I pray for a good story, God will show me a path which invariably is scary. But according to Miller, the most repeated commandment in the Bible is ‘do not fear.’
People live small and comfortable lives because living great stories is scary. But if we have the living God, the Great Protector, and the Master Storyteller on our side, what do we have to fear? “The mountains themselves call us into greater stories.”
I pray that we as the community of Christ will desire to live great stories. That we will have the courage to live great stories. And that through our stories, we might bring others into the Author of Life’s book.
Acts 3:15
Hebrews 2:10
Hebrews 12:2
So good Mike! When we have revelation of who we are in Christ and we come close to the Father, our stories will be what God intended!
Yes com’on Herb! So good!