Writing My Own Story

Many moons ago, when Josh and I were youth pastors, I was in charge of a group of teenage girls at an Encounter Retreat. In this weekend, the girls were going to come face to face with their past, present, and future; kind of an Ebenezer Scrooge meets Jesus experience. Each night before bed the counselors were given a question to ask the girls. One night I asked them, "If your life were made into a movie, what kind of movie would it be?"

In his newest book, Donald Miller is posed with that very same question. Two guys approach him to make his book, Blue Like Jazz, into a movie and Donald has to rewrite his own memoir for the big screen. The problem is that his life hasn't followed the guidelines of what makes a good story, so he sets out to change all that.

The book, as is customary of all of Miller's books, pulls me into myself, examining my own story and what impact I'm making on the people I encounter each and every day. If my life ever made it to film, would the moviegoers leave before it was over? Would they walk out hating my character or crying and laughing with her? When I get to heaven and get to the Inside the Actors' Studio in the sky, the words I want to hear are, "I knew you had it in you!"