Push

As I pulled in here this morning it occurred to me that it's been 3 months since the last entry in this chronological journey. I'm not even sure why I'm starting back up again, to be honest. I guess that maybe I'm needing a place to process again all that transpires along my journey. It's a way for me to stop and smell the roses along the way. This year there have been so many and sometimes it seems as if I've barely noticed.
Honestly, I've lived more this year than most people live in a decade. As one adventure rolls into another and age prevents my memory from always keeping up, I'm left with the fleeting dream images that are sometimes so clear when you wake up in the morning, only to disappear with the morning coffee. It's a shame really...to determine to live a better story, make a decent attempt at it, and then forget where you put the pages.
So here's to living a better story. I can tell it's possible if you set yourself towards it. The trick is to establish what would be considered a better story. It's a simple process really. The better stories are the ones that last...the classics...not those that you read in college literature classes these days, I mean the ones that used to be read. The ones that ACLU members hide in their closets because they can't bear to throw them out. They are the ones with the lines that most people could quote and they'd probably be horrified to actually find out where they came from. They are, may I say it... Eternal.
Living a better story means simply answering this question. " in five years, will this have mattered?". Most of us are caught up in stuff that wouldn't make that cut. I just came back from drilling a well for a village in Honduras. That is eternal stuff. Yours doesn't have to be that exotic. In fact most will probably not be. How about just be the parent that your kid needs you to be? In five years, will it really have mattered that you worked those hours to buy that stuff? I can tell you that my kids are now grown and couldn't tell you what they did or didn't get growing up, but they did get time and time is eternal. It's the better story.
Here's another that is close to me. Being a church follower is not living a better story, being a follower of Jesus...now that is the story to be lived. Following a church is scheduled and subjective and honestly, a decent amount of the time, fairly boring. Being a follower of Jesus is wild, unpredictable, dangerous, and challenging, all hopefully wrapped around a vibrant church life. I'll let you in on a trade secret though, from the perspective of a pastoral artist. If we had more Jesus followers and less personality followers in our churches, we would once again live in the pages of a best seller.
It happened once upon a time. I believe that it can happen again. I'm betting my story on it. We just need a little push.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ghost writing

"Can You Spare a Minute?"

blame