What's my story?

Friday we went to a talk from Donald Miller, who is a Christian author whose most recent book ("A Million Miles in a Thousand Years") I read a few weeks after getting back from Liberia. I think the timing of it was just right. The book (and his talk Friday) is focused on the concept of "story". Basically, a director contacts him about making a movie about his life (based on his earlier book, "Blue Like Jazz"). But as he thinks about how the movie will go, he realizes his life doesn't really tell a good story. So he sets out to discover what makes a good story, and makes some interesting changes to his life in the process.

He finds that the elements of a good story are: "A character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it." (Although of course there is more to it than that, since he wrote a whole book on it.) The thing I liked about the book is that it makes you think that your life doesn't have to be just a series of moments of you living, working, playing etc. No matter what you love in life, it's exciting to think that you can write a story through your life. Not that there's anything wrong with enjoying the moment and living for each day, in my opinion. But after being in Liberia, where I felt like what I was doing mattered in a much deeper way than just sitting at my computer all day, it affected me strongly to think that even living in Fort Collins, Colorado, I can live out a life that "tells a good story". Beyond that, I am kind of lost, because what would have to change for me to live a good story? Is my story decent now? Or should I sell everything and move to Africa? That seems a little extreme. These are kind of deep "life" questions that I don't intend to answer in this blog (or any time soon, to be honest).

But it's been on my mind lately and I think a great thing to think about. I do know that my life will involve working with Transformation International for the foreseeable future. It's a good thing I've already decided not to devote much time to training this year because that time has been easily filled up doing things related to the Peanut Butter House. I'm planning (another) event focused on it and other grass roots projects going on in Africa. I think it's going to be really neat, but maybe I should have gone into event planning rather than grad school.