You can call it God or a conscience… but there is a knowing I feel that guides me toward better stories, toward being a better character. I believe there is a writer outside ourselves, plotting a better story for us, interacting with us, even, and whispering a better story into our consciousness. —Don Miller
I’ve read a lot. Every once in a while, I come across a book that says something in such a way that I want to give it to my child and say, “Wow, do you get this?!” These rare books change the angle from which I’m able to look at the Great Story of God and humanity through history. Don Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years was one of those books. Reading it was like standing on the top of a waterfall looking down—and yes, I gave it to my son.
Don proposes that not only is there a Great Story going on, but that we are living stories within that Story. If we choose, we can write better stories—stories that shatter boredom, stories that matter, stories that will give us something to talk about with God in eternity. Paul would agree:
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. (2 Corinthians 3:2-5)
What kind of letter are you sending to the world? What kind of story are you writing?
Dear God, during this chapter of renewal and restoration in the Great Story of Life, I surrender the story of my life to You. I claim confidence and competence through Christ. Write what You wish; live it through me. Amen.