Friday, September 18, 2009

Life, Conflict, Story

Truly, I will answer eventually the questions about this second adoption. I just haven't exactly been sure how to yet. And in the meantime, I'm reading the new book by Don Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, a book about story. I'm finding that the thoughts here relate remarkably to our family right now. I'm only 60 pages in and have cried four times already.

Between envious thoughts popping into my head every other page, wishing I could write as well as Mr. Miller, my mind is being blown by the simple ideas presented about life and story. After Rich Mullins died in a car accident in 1997, I listened to his Jesus Demos over and over, the music he'd been working on before the tragedy. One line in particular became a driving force in my life: "Jesus, write me into your story, whisper it to me, and let me know I'm yours." I think in the muddle of life, I've lost a lot of the wonder that comes in knowing that there's a bigger story we can be a part of, if we allow it. Allowing it involves risk. It involves danger and obstacles and being uncomfortable for long stretches. I'm not so much a fan of any of those things. As it's explained in the book, the essence of story is "A character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it." Key word: conflict.

So this is the stuff currently on my mind, about life, about our family, about this next adoption. I'm going to keep reading and keep mulling over all this. In the meantime, I'll leave you with two of the passages from A Million Miles that have made me cry:

"If I have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you."

Can an artsy-crafty friend please stencil this onto the walls of our children's rooms?

And finally:

"I wonder if that's what we'll do with God when we are through with all this, if he'll show us around heaven, all the light coming in through windows a thousand miles away, all the fields sweeping down to a couple of chairs under a tree, in a field outside the city. And we'll sit and tell him our stories, and he'll smile and tell us what they mean.
I just hope I have something interesting to say."

7 comments:

mama becca said...

i cannot wait to get that book. i'm in the middle of conflict.. the messy, yucky kind... and i know it will be worth it for growth, healing, etc... oh how i love don miller... and you lori! still trying to get zach to move out your way... :)
b

Heidi said...

You ARE an incredible writer. I'm going to go out to Amazon and get this right now. Thanks for the recommendation...

PVZ said...

Cannot wait to read this book. I have a download of a podcast Donald Miller did at a Rob Bell's church about story that I have probably listened to about 6 times, it continues to both inspire and challenge me, and sometimes make me cry.

Tam and Kai - NYC said...

I've recently been tagged and am choosing all new families for my required seven...lucky you! :)
It's fun and a great way to meet more in the group.
Welcome!
more details at...
WeHeartEthiopia.blogspot.com

Jo Hertel said...

Wow. I only hope that at the end it can be said that I explored and fulfilled all of the story God has written me into.

coffeemom said...

He did. Look at you. Wonderful and beautifully made.

Psalm 139: 12-14:
"For You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb."

and

Jeremiah 1:5
"Before I formed you in the womb, I KNEW you. Before you were born I set you apart."

I'm sorry to throw verses at you...but well, you know I had to. God DID sit in the dark nothing and write you into His story and works through you, now. And if He wasn't thinking of you, NOW and eternally, you would simply cease to exist. poof.

And that would be tragic. He made you and your family, so beautiful.

Eryn said...

Wow. This gave me crazy goosebumps all over. I think it would be amazing to have that statement on walls over your kiddos...beautiful.

You do have something interesting to say, Lori. I like that part of the last quote...you are an amazing woman who I admire. Your passion, your heart for justice...things unjust to be righted and how you seem to pursue that will your whole self. I don't know you as well as I'd like to, but that part of you seems obvious.

Like the others, I'm sure, I can't wait to hear more of the adoption #2 story! :) Bless you, friend!