Your Life Is A Story - Tell A Good One

I will admit, I'm very selective when it comes to picking out what books I want to read. I have a list that I add to as I learn about authors or titles I think I would enjoy. I go off of recommendations from authors I've enjoyed in the past, when someone I like to read says something is one of the best books they've read I tend to pay attention. The downside of that is sometimes a book goes on my list, I acquire it, and I don't always remember where I learned about it. I don't remember anything about how I learned about Donald Miller's book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story but when I started reading, it pulled me in more than anything I was expecting.

It was such an engaging story about how Donald Miller learned more about his own life by studying the art form of telling a story. He touched on some basic principles that are required to make a story, and the elements of what differentiates a good story from a bad story. Each of us has a story, our lives are a story, we are characters interacting daily as our stories intersect. But is it a good story or is it the kind of story that puts a reader to sleep? Great stories have some sort of conflict that the protagonist has to overcome. Yet we go through life avoiding those hardships, the defining moments of our life, the times that we have to go through hell to come out the other side a changed and better person.
Somehow we realize that great stories are told in conflict, but we are unwilling to embrace the potential greatness of the story we are actually in. p.31
 We think of conflict as two people arguing or countries at war. But there is another definition of conflict, the type that we all go through in our lives. The challenges we face like losing a job, watching a child go through multiple surgeries, or face the realities of raising children in a broken and sinful world. Those are also conflicts, the type that shape our character, that make our unique story something special. When you come through those conflicts you look back at them as turning points that make you you.

Your story is greater than you think, but if you aren't happy with your story you can do something to change it. As Donald Miller tells us in his book, he created conflicts in his life, he is making his story more interesting. Your story isn't finished, you have the ability to change the tale.

I haven't read anything else besides A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, but Miller's writing is so engaging I'm definitely going to be adding some of his other books to my list, and another author he recommended in his book. It will be interesting to see what I learn next, I'm sure it will make my story even better.

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