Extraordinary in the Ordinary

I recently read, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller.  It is a book about what makes a good story. I loved the book. I have to be honest, though. I could not help but wonder what his real story was. If his story is what is in the book, I want his story.

He rode a bike.

He met his father.

He started a mentoring program.

He wrote a book.

They made a movie.

He wrote a book about making a movie.

If that really is his story, I am so impressed at the insight in his book on what makes a good story. You would think that type of insight would have only come from the pain and heartache of a difficult story, which is what he says makes a good story.

By that definition, my story has the potential to be an epic novel. Even a movie. It is a good thing I already know who will play me.

But even still, I find myself yearning for a story like the Pioneer Woman’s story.  Now, THAT story will make a great book! Who would not want THAT story???  Even if she has to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and has to deal with a cow’s private parts. She still has an amazing love story and an amazingly beautiful life. I don’t know about everyone else, but in my mind that is what makes a good story.

Fairy tales have ruined us all.  Isn’t that what we all want?  Some of us clearly did not sign up for the stories we got.

But the one thing we can all be assured of as believers is a happy ending, no matter what our story.  But the happy ending that God talks of is when He comes for His bride, the church. When once and for all we are with Him for all eternity. This life is not where our happy ending lies.  It is just the journey. We are only sojourners here.

Now some of us may have some happy stories here.   It’s just not “the end”.  That comes later.

Through each trial in my life, I have grown.  At the age of 46, I am not the person that I started out as at 20.  I am wiser because of painful mistakes.  I am more forgiving and loving as I have realized my own imperfections and limitations. But as I face the trial before me, I find myself thinking, “Good grief, how much more do I need to grow? How good does a person need to get???”

What is ahead will put me through the press like no other trial I have yet to experience.  I am still just in shock when I look at my husband and realize what he has ahead of him.  What we have ahead of us. What we are already smack dab in the middle of.   It’s been two months since we found out that he has Huntington’s disease.  I am still in shock a little.  In one moment our story completely changed.  All of a sudden we became a story about a rare and tragic disease, a disease that is devastating as the person’s brain cells waste away.  We are still trying to find our parts in this story.  Once upon a time our story was about buying land with our grown children and living out the life of our dreams. Our story changed in one brief second.

A good story, though, isn’t always about the cards you’re dealt.  It’s about how you play them. That is the real story.

And you know what?  Hard story and all, in this moment right now, my cup runneth over. I am blessed.  That is how I have to walk lately, moment by moment.  Five minutes from now I could be throwing myself on the bed in tears of despair.

Definitely read Don’s book.  It has a lot of amazing insights. While we do not get to choose our story, it will help us to see the opportunity and challenge to make the story we have a good one.

I am, after all, the leading lady in my own life.

Some days, though, I may just stay in bed and not take any chances of screwing it up.

~T