our place in God's story and the story of our lives

So I'm reading this book that's a little out of my normal reading list right now. It's called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. I had read one of his books a while back so when this one looked interesting I picked it up. It has been a good read so far. The book is about making a part of his life into a movie. They spend a lot of time talking about story - about character, plot, conflict, etc. - not exactly something you would expect a business major to enjoy reading about (I took my one required English Literature class to graduate and did just well enough).

In the book, Miller often relates the concepts of a story to the lives God has given us to live. God has created a story that is unfolding and then He has created us and placed us in that story. I read something in the book yesterday that really struck me at the time.

When Steve, Ben, and I wrote our characters into the screenplay, I felt the way I hope God feels as he writes the world, sitting over the planets and placing tiny people in tiny wombs. I f I have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you.
I've wondered, though, if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don't want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgement. We don't want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage. And if life isn't remarkable, then we don't have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims rather than grateful participants.
But I've noticed something. I've never walked out of a meaningless movie thinking all movies are meaningless. I only thought the movie I walked out was meaningless. I wonder, then, if when people say life is meaningless, what they really mean is their lives are meaningless. I wonder if they've chosen to believe their whole existence is unremarkable, and are projecting their dreary life on the rest of us. (pg. 59-60)

I especially liked the line that said: "Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it mean you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you." God created us to enjoy the story He has given us. He wants us to find joy in living life. We have place in God's larger story. And we have the story of our own lives that we are part of, and that God allows us freedom to create for ourselves.

back on the prairies

So, I'm sitting in my hotel room in Caronport . . . back here for a week for my "baby" sister's wedding. As we were flying in to Regina earlier this afternoon I struck again by how flat it is out here . . . and everything looks like boxes from up above, as we flew over the endless farm fields. And yet, as I look out the window of the hotel room there is also a beauty to the prairies. Growing up in cities and surrounded by mountains, I had never seen a sunset that looked like the ones I saw here, or seen a night sky quite like you can see here.

Looking outside reminds me of how much care and detail that God took in creating this world - all parts of this world. Although, when I was out here for school those of us from BC used to joke that God spent lots of time making everything west of the Rocky Mountains and by the time He got to here, He was tired so that's why they're all flat here. But, that was all in fun.

This picture is looking out across a field from a dirt road at the edge of town. Seeing the sky go on and on forever like that is something that people raised in mountainous areas don't usually see.

Watching the sunset through the trees. It was pretty cool to see a sunset take over the entire sky.

Growing up in the beautiful place that I did, it was always easy to take it for granted. It wasn't until I left there to go away for school that I realized how beautiful it actually was. And, also discovered the different kind of beauty that other areas had to offer - even the cold prairies can be beautiful in winter when you're watching the Northern Lights or watching an amazing sunrise or sunset.

God sure created a beautiful place for us to live. We have been blessed. Sitting here today reminded me of that.

community

So, fighting a cold and sore throat the last few days has meant that I've been watching a lot of M*A*S*H . . . maybe a little too much of it when it's becoming an illustration for a blog post.

For those who have never watched M*A*S*H, the character names in the descriptions may not make a lot of sense, but you should still be able to get the point.

The first thing that got me thinking about writing this blog is a scene where Margaret and Klinger are driving. They hit a rock on the road and put a whole in the oil pan of the jeep meaning they are stuck there for night - as it is too late to walk back to camp. This is not exactly what Margaret had in mind when they set out. She was looking forward to plans for her birthday. She hadn't told anyone that it was her birthday, so Klinger is naturally a little surprised when she says so. When he asks why, her response is that she didn't want others to be feeling sorry for her - that was something she wanted to reserve for herself.

As I was watching that unfold, I started thinking about how often we do exactly the same thing. We want to reserve for ourselves the "right" to feel sorry for ourselves, so we don't share with others about our disappointments. But, that's not the way we were created to live. God created us for community - with a desire for a sense of belonging.

The second spot that got me thinking about this more was in an episode where one of the nurses at the 4077 gets killed by a landmine. Hawkeye volunteers to deliver the euology at the memorial service they have for her. In the process, he discovers how little he knew of this nurse - how little anyone in the camp knew of her. Upon suggestion of the camp's chaplain, Hawkeye reads the diary of this nurse and realizes that some of their preconceived ideas about why she was so quiet and kept so much to herself were very wrong. She was shy and didn't know how to express herself to people. Hawkeye is also a character who doesn't really share much of his deeper feelings with people - he uses jokes to cover them up - and he takes the time during the eulogy to let those people at the 4077 that important to him know.

As I watched that episode, I started to think about how we so often do the same thing. We don't actually tell people what they mean to us - usually because we don't know how because we've never done it before. And sometimes,we then don't have the opportunity to tell them later. Another aspect of living in community with one another that's important.

The sermon this weekend at church was about belonging and how that is found first in belonging to Christ. But, once we belong to Christ, we also belong to the family of God. That's the place where we can be honest with one another, encourage one another, pray for one another. Society may tell us that we should be strong and independent and go it alone, but God designed us for community and we search for that place to belong.