What's Your Story?

1 Peter 4:10-11
¹⁰ Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. 

When God puts something in your heart, it is very difficult to ignore Him.  You can make excuses, and you can even pretend you didn't hear Him, but at the end of the day those who decide to follow His leading find themselves blessed beyond imagination.

God has put the concept of service on my mind the past few weeks.  Being a new mom, I had taken a temporary "sabbatical" from serving others and focused on serving my new baby girl.  To be quite honest, I didn't have the strength, energy, or desire to do much else the first few months of being a mom.  But lately God has slowly been challenging me to take a step of faith and reach out to others in this new stage of my life.

My last post was a challenge for each of us to take a look at the gifts we have been given and put them to use...and as I said before, I can't seem to get this topic off of my mind.  A discussion I had this morning reminded me of a story I had read last year in Donald Miller's Book: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. 

In this book Don talks about his friend's teenage daughter who was making some poor decisions in her life.  Her dad finally realized that his daughter was making these choices in an effort to find purpose and meaning.  He realized that he had not put much effort into helping his daughter create a  "story" for her life, something significant to live for.  And so, she decided to go make up a story of her own "a story of risk and adventure, rebellion and independence". 

This father decided to take the initiative to really give his daughter something to be passionate about...to help her write a good story.  He held a family meeting and presented the idea of raising money to help build an orphanage for needy children through an organization he had researched.  His daughter's face lit up at the prospect of having something meaningful to live for.  They found her taking initiative, raising money, and coming up with brilliant ideas to serve the poor.  She even planned a family trip to Mexico to take part in building the orphanage as a family. 

Soon, she broke up with her loser boyfriend, and began to focus on greater things.  As Don records in his book, "No girl who plays the role of a hero dates a guy who uses her".  

And that's the reality of living our lives the way God intends for us to live them...through His power, we become "heros" in the stories of our lives, living to make this world a better place just as Jesus did.  We take on the identity that He longs for us to have and the purpose that we were made for.

Too many people are walking around, without a significant story to live for- living roles they were never intended to live.  Rebellion and risk look enticing to someone who has nothing better to do.  In my sincere opinion, I believe that 90% of America's youth are going down the wrong path because no one has taken the time to help them write a good story for their lives.  They are bored...looking for an adventure, which is precisely what they were created for. 

God's adventures for our lives and for the lives of those around us are above and beyond what we could ever imagine...if we would only take the time to let Him lead us.   

I'm ready to take my story to the next step...are you?