Writing your story.

Posted on December 7th, 2009 by Robbin and currently 9 commenting.

Warning: I usually stay away from anything having to do with religion or politics in my musings on this blog. But this is really a good story. Stay with me if you wish.

I had a long conversation over the phone with Rob Morris from Love146 the other day and at some point in our conversation he told me a story that has been rolling around in my head for a week or two.

Rob told me that he and his wife are reading a book together: “A Million Miles And A Thousand Years” by Donald Miller.

He went on to explain that this book is all about story and finding yourself in a story. Donald Miller also wrote a book called “Blue Like Jazz” based on his life.

I love how Miller describes the book on his site:

“My career was dead when I started this thing, so I felt like I was just talking to myself, or to the little reading group that met at my house.

Sting has this song where he says that he is alone on an island and puts a message in a bottle and throws it into the ocean, only to wake the next morning and have a hundred million bottles washed upon his shore. He sings “I guess I’m not alone at being alone,” and I think that sums up how I feel about Blue Like Jazz. It feels like I thought I was alone but woke up one morning to discover nothing could be further from the truth.”

Anyway, “Blue Like Jazz” took off like crazy and became a best seller. It was such a big hit, it got him a movie deal. Well, the movie producers came in and told him they were going to need to “embellish” the story a bit to make a great movie. “We have to create a better story than the one in the book.” And at first Miller was offended.

It really got him thinking about how he lives his life. And he said “Isn’t it kind of crappy that you have to look back and say, wow, I’ve got to fill in some things and embellish some things to make a better story out of my life? What if I actually lived like that on a daily basis and created the story as I go and with more intentionality, what would it look like?”

When my daughter was about three she was sitting quietly in the back of the car staring out the window after a long day at preschool and she said me, “Mom, what if we are all just a book and someone is drawing the pictures and someone is writing the words?” Okay, maybe she said it in shorter sentences, she hasn’t been three in a while.

Hmmm.

How will you write your story today?