A Story Worth Telling

Is it really necessary to live a story worth telling? I say "yes" if you truly are a child of God. After all, we are the only one's truly living. Everyone else is merely existing until the day of their ultimate demise. We must take the lead in life and show life the way God intended it to be lived. And we must not get distracted from what really matters, from what really determines a life well-lived. Wealth and possessions don't matter. It is not the litmus test of a life worth living. Accomplishment is not the main thing. In the original Rocky and in this last Rocky (I hope this doesn't ruin it for anyone), he doesn't win the fight. But we are still inspired by the story. So what does matter? You do! The kind of person you are, the choices you make, the driving force of your life, all matter.

1. What you want matters. What your vision is, your dreams and desires matter. They set the course of your life. They create your ambition or the goal for which you work. Desires are not necessarily wrong. No desires lead to a passionless life. Noone writes about a person with no passion. But if we don't want the right things, our stories become small and our lives become unfullfilled. But if we want what God wants, our lives will have impact beyond our years.


2. Your moral choices matter. We talk about Joseph because he ran from Potiphar's wife. If he had slept with her, his story would have probably been no greater than his other brothers who lived immoral lives. But he made good choices and had a lasting impact on his family and on history. Being good is not an end in itself. That's legalism. Being good is a path that usually leads to greater opportunity and greater impact. Bad choices are also a path but it is one that can be ruinous to dreams and life itself. Thankfully, through repentance and forgiveness, we can get off that path at any time and begin new stories to the glory of God.


3. Overcoming the obstacle that is before you now, or enduring the hardship you find yourself in today, or rising up from the victimization and abuse that you have gone through matters. Noone writes about quitters. We tell stories of the people who finish. Don't quit. Don't get discouraged. Don't throw in the towel. You don't know how close you are to a breakthrough. There is a reward to those who endure to the end. That means there will be an end and what is at the end is determined by how you finish. The greater the obstacle or conflict, the greater the story.