several months ago i finally got around to joining a community group in my church. a few gatherings in, one person suggested that we each take turns, one person per meeting, telling our stories.
and then i panicked.
not because i didn't want to tell my story, but because i realized i didn't know what it was.
what is my story? what is any story?
last week i read "a million miles in a thousand years" by my favorite author, donald miller, and later that week i got to hear him speak on the book. the book talks about how to tell a better story with our lives. in it, don defines (well, actually, his roommate defines for him) what a story is: "a story is a character who overcomes conflict to get what he wants." don goes on to explain that the story is only good if what the character wants is interesting. for example, he says, no one wants to watch a 2-hour movie about a guy trying to buy a volvo. we don't care.
so. back to my story. if my story is a character (me) overcoming conflict (let's not get into that now) to get what i want.... wait. what do i want? i don't know. i don't know what i want, and perhaps that's why i don't know what my story is.
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