My Movie

So, as I mentioned last time, this book, "A Million miles in a Thousand years" has really got me thinking about my life.  Am I living a life worth writing about?  Am I living a life worth making a movie out of?  Boy, I'd have to say most days, not really.  I sit in front of my computer a lot.  I check facebook more than I should.  I read great stories written by other authors, and watch shows and movies put on by other people.  But, as for doing something truly epic and worthy with my life?  Meh.
Now, that's not to say I've never done anything epic or note-worthy.  I've had some colossal failures in my life, you could easily write a tragedy or two from some of those.  There's even a few "I shall overcome" moments worth writing about, but those happened back when I was 10 and 11, and I'm not sure I've done anything as impressive lately.
My biggest accomplishment I would say, with true joy actually, is my family.  I love my family.  I have an amazing wife, and 4 fantastic kids.  All of them are talented, and kind, and they all love Jesus (my greatest joy of all.)  And, actually, it is the story in how we came to have our fourth child that I figured would be the greatest story I would have told in my life.
For those of you who don't know, Sarah and I were blessed to adopt our last child, Sage, from China about 2 years ago.  And she is amazing!  We have been so blessed by her addition to our family, I truly cannot remember what life was like without her.  But, when I think about it, it was a pretty big story.  Maybe not a story worth making a movie out of for some, but I would go see it. 
You see, this was a story that we did together as a family.  Sarah and I felt called for a long time to adopt, and just seemed to keep having kids the old fashioned way so we never got around to it.  But, after our third child, we decided that if there was going to be a fourth Walles' kid we were going to adopt. 
And when we felt God push us to be more serious about that, we talked about it together and with our kids.  Because this would be a big deal for all of us.  Adoption is awesome!  And one of the reasons it's a blessing is that you can plan on certain things as a family.  You can really talk about the reality of what adopting might mean.  And for us, as we began to feel called to adopt a girl with special needs, it was such a blessing that we could talk about that as a family.  We talked it through with the other kids - what it would mean to be gone from them for 2 weeks, only to return with a little girl who would need a great deal of special care and medical help for who knew how long.  It was going to be a fair amount of work.  Sage was going to need a lot of unconditional love, and the sacrifice that everyone in the family was going to have to make was something we got to talk about and prepare for.  It was such a unique opportunity that you don't always get when adding a child to your family.
Now, to be fair, it wasn't always easy when we brought Sage home.  All our preparations and conversations still didn't ward off some hard days, and even harder nights.  But now, as we look back over the last 2 years, and see how Sage is healthy, and happy, and unconditionally loved, I know without a doubt it was all worth it.  It was an amazing story, one I never tire of telling.  All the main characters played a great role, our other kids, Sarah, Sage herself.  Our family is complete, it's exactly as God intended it to be, and the fact that we got to play a part in this story is humbling.
And, again, in many ways I would be just fine if this were the greatest story of my life.  If bringing Sage into our family is the highlight of my life story, I'm good with that, because it's one of my favorite stories ever.  But I'm beginning to think God has one more great and exciting story for our family as well.
What is your greatest story?  What is it in your life that you think, "Yeah, that'd be worth making a movie out of."  Give thanks for that story.  And then ask yourself, does God have another story in mind for you as well.  My next post will be what I think that next one is for us.  I'd love to hear about yours as well.
Happy Easter!

And, don't forget,
Don't go to church, Be the Church

Bill

A Million Miles

For those of you who follow this blog you know I tend to take a break during the Winter months and then pick up again as we head towards Summer.  It would appear this year was no different.  Part of my intent is to connect with people as they're off on vacations and such, which tends to happen more in Spring and Summer, but I appreciate the opportunity to engage at any time as well.  And, I thought this was a great subject to start that back up.
I recently finished a book by Donald Miller called, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years."  Now, I continue to hear sad statistics about how adults in America read, on average, only the ingredients of a box of cereal in any given year.  I'm hoping that's not true, and there are still a number of avid readers out there.  And, even if you're not, I really recommend this book.
It's a memoir by a guy who got pretty famous when he wrote his first memoir, "Blue Like Jazz".  It was a quirky little book with this guy's take on life and faith that seemed to connect with a lot of people  After that he wrote a few more books, and life was "pretty good".  Then, a couple of movie guys came around and asked to make a movie about Don, basically crating a fictional story out of Blue Like Jazz.  And so Don agrees, and works with these two guys to create a movie about the fictional 'Don' with help by the real "Don'.  Kind of meta, I know.
But here's the kicker.  In this process, Don really comes to see that he's not living a life worth making a movie out of!  Don's life isn't bad, but it's not movie material.  That's why they have to invent a fictional Don whose life has greater highs and lows, because that's what all of us are looking for when it comes to a movie or a great story.  And it causes Don to ask himself (the real Don, that is), can we choose to live our lives so that they are Movie-worthy?  Can we choose to live a great story?
It is a great question that drives the rest of the book, and has really driven me lately as well.  My next couple of posts will be on this idea.  Looking at my life, would it be worth making a movie out of it?  Some things I've done, yeah maybe.  And I hope that's true for all of us.  But am I really living a life that's a great story?  Every day?  Now that's a tough question. 
I think our little family did something great in the last couple of years, and that will be my next blog post.  And then, I think we're going to attempt something great in the next few years of our lives as well.  I'll talk about that one next.
But, in the meantime, read this book.  "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years."  It's fantastic, and hopefully challenges you as much as it did me.  Is your life a great story?  Are the choices you make defining?  Would anybody see a movie about your life?  Now that's a challenge worth answering.

Don't go to church, Be the Church

Bill