Living a Good Story

I feel like I spend most of my time summarizing something Donald Miller already said. I also feel like this is a pretty good use of my time. In his book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Miller contemplates the structure of a story and how it relates to real life. I love thinking of life as a story for a few reasons:
1. I'm an English major. . . I pay (ok, fine. . . my parents pay) a lot of money to study stories and how they work. If you start to see life as a story, the ability to understand story structure suddenly becomes a lot more important. Understanding character motivation becomes a lot more useful. And paying for a piece of paper to hang in a frame on the wall that says "Bachelor of Arts in English" seems a lot less pointless.
2. If I live in a story, that means there is an author. Someone is carefully crafting the story in and around me. Someone who can see how the story is going to end up. Someone with some control. Now I realize (as Miller points out) that characters in a story don't always do what the author wants. I've written some fiction and sometimes I am completely surprised by what my own characters decide to get themselves into. But that leads me to my next point:
3. There is an audience. Stories don't exist in a vacuum. Someone has to watch that movie, read that book, or act that play. Someone out there is enjoying what I do. Someone out there cares. Now, I also keep a personal journal. (You know, for the things that just shouldn't be posted on the Internet. . . ) And I have realized that when I write in that journal, I suffer from an affliction I am going to call "Anne Frank Syndrome." For some reason, I think that sometime in the future. . . someone is going to read my journal and decide it must be published. And millions of people will read it. And I will be famous. (I guess I probably write this blog for the same reason.) The point is: I love the idea of an audience. God takes delight in watching me.

Well, if life is a story, then right now, I am living a really good story. The biggest problem I have (besides the fact that if I don't do laundry tomorrow, I will be wearing dirty clothes to class on Monday) is remembering to thank the Author for writing me such a great part to play. God has been working in my life. Putting together pieces of plans and making me meet the right people and be in the right place at the right time. And when everything works out, I just smile and take credit. But I cannot take any credit for the good in my life. It is all Him. But the best part is knowing. . . no matter where things go from here, this story ends with me meeting my Author.

New Year's Resolutions 2010

I know what you are thinking: we are already ten days into 2010. Why have I waited this long to finalize and verbalize my resolutions? Honestly, I like to shop around and see what other people I know are doing. It might seem unoriginal to copy from others, but my friends happen to be extremely intelligent, insightful individuals. So I copy them.

My first resolution concerns this blog. I want to shift the focus away from entertainment news and actually post personal things on here. It is easy to write a blog judging the Oscar nominees, but it is a lot more meaningful to write a blog discussing what is going on in my spiritual life. In addition to that, I was not very consistent in updating this blog last semester. I want to make an effort to post weekly about something I have been thinking about or something going on in my life, including what I have been reading in the Bible during the past week. This is one way that I hope to achieve the goal of being more introspective and contemplative throughout 2010.

My next resolution has to do with school. For my last semester, I honestly want to read all my assignments! I know it sounds like I should have been doing that all along, but . . . I haven't. School starts tomorrow, so this resolution also starts tomorrow.

Finally, my last resolution is the one I (blatantly) stole from a friend. I want 2010 to be a year of honesty. That has a lot of applications in my life. From honest accountability to not being deceptive or manipulative. I haven't decided the exact form this resolution will take, yet. But I believe it is incredibly important. When I lie or cheat, it definitely doesn't glorify God. It makes me think of 2 Corinthians 3:16-18.
"But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
Living with an unveiled face (at least to me) means taking away the things that hide what is true. If I am honest and show people the truth, I reflect God's glory (no matter how ugly the truth may be).

So these are some pretty lofty goals, I guess. But I am going to try to remember:
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen!"
- John 12:43

The Importance of Agreeing to Disagree

I haven't updated in a while, I realize. But I finally found something I actually want to talk about. Now: I don't want anyone to think I am presenting original ideas. (I don't plagiarize.) This subject has come up with me and a few of my friends lately. (Namely, Brent Bailey and Katelyn Reed) And I really started thinking about this when I was reading Donald Miller's Searching for God Knows What. I am just finally combining all these different viewpoints and explaining how they have all shaped my own.

I am going to write about agreeing to disagree. But first, I need to address something Donald Miller calls "lifeboat games." I'll try to explain the concept as succinctly as possible. Imagine you are in a lifeboat that will safely hold eight people. There are nine people on board. Who gets thrown off? Immediately, the people on the lifeboat would start trying to prove to everyone else that they were worth keeping. Everyone would start ranking the other passengers and try to avoid being stuck in ninth place. Well, Miller suggests that we (humans) believe we are in that situation. We are constantly trying to prove our worth to the people around us (by wearing the right clothes, making fun of the right people, or even supporting the winning football team). Somehow, we believe these things can place us higher in the pecking order and save us from drowning.

I never realized how caught up I was in lifeboat games until I read Miller's explanation. But I find that I subscribe to one lifeboat game more than any other: I love to be right. I love to prove other people wrong. I love to know more than you and if I can prove I am more intelligent than you are, I believe I will move up in the lifeboat. I even get angry when other people do not follow my criteria for lifeboat rankings. (I have made long arguments about the ridiculousness of the university system rewarding people who can shoot a basketball or carry a football because for some reason this is seen as more valuable than academics.) All this to say: I hate being wrong.

Well, during the conversations I had with my friends, I came across a lot of agreeing to disagree. For Brent, agreeing to disagree is something of a New Year's resolution. And when I encountered this, I was somewhat annoyed. (The "argument" was that I thought Avatar deserved to be nominated for Best Picture. He did not.) So I went about trying to force Brent to play my lifeboat game. I challenged him to name ten movies he thought deserved the nomination more. And when he pretty much refused to get involved in my lifeboat game, I had to give up. I didn't get to be right.

With Katelyn, the situation was a little different. We were watching Magnolia and I was that guy in the room criticizing everything about the movie. (A movie Katelyn really likes and has seen three times.) Now, I hate watching movies with THAT guy. So I am glad Katelyn finally asked me to stop. (And for anyone wondering, I would not recommend watching Magnolia.) But the important thing I got from this was: Katelyn's opinion was just as valid and important as mine. Even though I could come up with five or six concrete reasons why I disliked the movie, that didn't make me "right." Katelyn still liked the movie, even if she couldn't explain exactly why. (She did explain. I am just using this as an example.)

I guess what I am trying to say is: it isn't important that anyone likes what I like or dislikes what I dislike. And here is why: God doesn't care how many times I was right. He doesn't care whether Alabama or Texas won the national championship. That trophy doesn't make the Alabama football team more valuable in God's eyes. There is no lifeboat. Or better yet: there is an ocean liner with enough room for everyone. No one is getting kicked off the ship. And suddenly, agreeing to disagree is actually pretty awesome.