Choose a Better Story

Donald Miller, in his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life, made a profound statement: Choose a better story. Most of us drift into our stories: The ones our parents have chosen for us. The ones our friends are pursuing. The ones our culture demands. The ones that flow out of the college major we ended up with, or the person we married, or the job we could get. Too often, those are lesser stories. We should listen to my 4-year-old grandboy, Aidan: That’s not a good story, Jeedoo. It’s too small. My life since I met Christ at age 15 has been to choose daily whether I will go God’s way or demand my own way. To live the story God is writing for me or to insist on my own story line. Here are some things I have learned about God’s story for me: 1. As long as I am still here, God has more story for me. Every day, every chapter matters in His plan for me and for His Kingdom story. 2. God’s story for me rarely lives out the same as my ideas. Whatever drama and conflict and great endings I have dreamed of, God’s story for me will include more drama and intense conflict, as well as resolutions and surprise endings, than I could never imagine. 3. God’s story for me is always better than anything I could write. He’s a much better storyteller, He knows me intimately and He knows the future. So I tell myself, often: Don’t settle for a small story. Choose God’s better story—every day. C 2011 Judy Douglass