New Years Eve: Are You Living A Story Worth Telling?

Philippians 3:13-14
No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all that I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Jesus Christ, is calling us up to heaven. 

A few days ago I started reading the latest book by Don Miller called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.  I’m only a few pages into it at this point and I’m not sure exactly what the book will hold.  From what I gather, it’s a book about Don’s thoughts and feelings as he took part in the process of turning his memoir into a movie.  A movie about himself. 

If I gather nothing else from this book, there is one line on the first page that really struck a cord with me:

“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.”

There is something truly profound about that statement.  It struck a cord with me, because in so many ways, that is how I want to live my life.  That is the word that I long to be identified by at the end of my story: meaningful.   

There are so many words that could define our lives, aren’t there?  So many words that could describe our very existence.  So many years, experiences, actions and memories can be summarized into one short word.  If you could choose your definition, what would it be? 

Depressed.
Bitter.
Selfish.
Loved.
Rich.
Lonely.
Beautiful.
Self-Absorbed.
Content.
Successful.
Kind.

So many words….so many definitions…so many ways to summarize our story.  But will the words that people choose to place upon our lives make a story worth telling?  Will they make a story that inspires others to live and grow and love?  Will they make a story that brings a smile to God’s face?  Will they make a story that would make us proud to call it our own?

I don’t know about you, but I want to live a story that is worth telling.  I want to live a life that is nothing less than meaningful.  I want to take these precious moments and days and years that God has given me, and give them back to Him in a way that is nothing short of meaningful.  Nothing short of what He meant for it to be. 

At the close of 2009, I challenge you to take a look at your life.  Take a look around you.  Take a look of how far you have come.  Take a look at where you are.  Take a look at who you have become.  Take a look at how you have used your moments and your days. 

And then, look ahead.  Look beyond your mediocre plans for your life and embrace the magnificence that He has designed for you.  Let go of the empty definitions that have been bogging you down and begin to take on those which will give your life purpose and meaning.  Those which you were meant to carry all along. 

This New Year, may you be compelled to live toward meaning.  May you be inspired to live this life as if it were your last to live.  May you be encouraged to define your life by words that you have never been able to use before.  May your life be filled with the seeds of hope, meaning, and purpose that will take root and begin to grow.  This New Year, may you strive to live a story worth telling.

Happy New Year Everyone.