BRIAN BECKSTROM CAMPUS PASTOR
I’ve been thinking a lot about stories lately. Not the kind of stories found in the fiction section, but the kind that we live.
It all started with a book by Donald Miller called “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”. Don is one of my favorite authors. He wrote another book called “Blue Like Jazz” that was very popular.
Although Don enjoyed the acclaim he received from the book, there was a problem: he didn’t know what to do next.
After floundering around for a while, he woke up and realized that he was living a pretty boring and trivial story. And then he actually went out and did something about it.
So I’m reading this book and happen to be at a conference where the presenter is talking about stories.
He says that we all have certain stories that help us make sense of our lives. Christians usually orient themselves in the story of the Bible, but it isn’t the only story out there.
The presenter made his point with a really cool slide with a tiny Bible in the middle of a black screen. As he talked, a bunch of advertising images popped up around the Bible. Each ad represented a different story that was competing for our attention. These other stories are alluring but ultimately empty.
As Don Miller says, “If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers…the truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either” (Page xiii).
I was thinking about all this when I was asked to be part of a panel discussion with seniors about making the transition from Wartburg to the “real world”.
As I sat there, I began to think about all the different stories that were currently competing for their attention and mine. I thought about how different these stories were, and how little we actually reflect on what kind of story we’re living.
So I asked myself, what kind of story am I living?
Better yet, what kind of story are you living?
College is a time where you begin to write your own story, so I encourage you to take some time to think about it…and if you need some help, come find me. I like to drink coffee and talk about stories.