Let Story Guide You – Donald Miller
Biblical stories speak for themselves – it does its own work.
We go to movies and read stories for entertainment that leave us satisfied
Principles of a good story – If you understand story there are principles to a GOOD story.
And if you obey these principles your story will be very entertaining, and if you ignore these principles your story will not be entertaining.
There are guidelines for a story to make sense.
A movie has to make sense. What this means is that we need to care about what happens to the protagonist. A story that doesn’t make sense is when I don’t care if the protagonist succeeds or not.
Our lives can work the same way. We can wake up and realize that life no longer makes sense.
Our lives are connected to the principles of story.
A good test for your story is this: If the protagonist dies – what dreams die with him/her? McKey’s Story quote here: “The storyteller’s selection and arrangement of events is his master metaphor for interconnectedness of all the levels of reality: personal, political, environmental, spiritual. Stripped of its surface location and characterization story structure reveals his personal cosmology, his insight into the deepest patterns and motivations of why and how things happen in this world. It is his map of life’s hidden order.
When you read the Bible your grid gets set (The way you interact to reality) The positive and negative charges in your life get set – You learn what is right and wrong, what’s wise or foolish, what’s good or bad. (Check out the book Deep Change and find the quote about the empty spaces in our atoms where the negative and positive charges reside)
How many of you have went to a GOOD movie or read a book that you went in fuzzy, but left clear headed? (Stop tape and deal with this question)
That is the POWER of story!
Story is like a compass. It gives us guard rails. We like the creeds because they keep us focused and on the right path, but so does narrative. Story teaches us that it is good to be a hero. It is good to help someone who can’t help themselves. We learn from story to defend the defenseless. We learn what is right and true, and it is more powerful than creeds.
Narrative of Joseph
God gives Joseph a vision that he is going to rule over his brothers. That is a great start to a story, because we are wondering what will happen next.
The first step in the process of ruling over everyone is to get thrown into a well. Didn’t expect that!
He gets out of the well, and then gets sold into slavery. This is what is called a Negative Turn. Negative turns make the story interesting. Stories without negative turns are boring.
(A plot without tension is flat line, a life with no rises, no dips, no anima/animus/pl. animae = breath, soul, or spirit. –Lt animatus - animare to make alive, fill with breath. Life, by definition, involves tension. To Be Told p.1)
Sold to Potipher who works for Pharoah. Finally a positive turn… But… Potipher has a wife who wants to sleep with Joseph, but he refuses… so she gets him thrown in prison. Another Negative Turn. So you have negative turn after positive turn.
Wow! He isn’t going to rule over anyone in prison. But in prison he meets a baker and cupbearer who both worked for Pharoah and they both had dreams. Joseph interprets the dreams and they both come true. The cupbearer forgets about Joseph after returning to work for Pharoah. Another negative turn after a positive turn.
Years go by. Pharoah has dreams. Cupbearer remembers. Joseph is brought before Pharoah. A positive turn, but Joseph is a Jew and the Egyptians don’t even eat with Jews so there is no way Joseph is going to be second in command.
So Joseph tells what the dreams mean, and then he tells Pharoah what he ought to do!
Pharoah puts Joseph in charge and he is 2nd in command of Egypt. This is a huge reversal from prison to 2nd in command. It is a great story.
There are other stories in the Bible that aren’t so great. Like the story of Jonah. He never wants to do what God tells him. At end of story you say, “I don’t want to be like Jonah. I want to be like Joseph.”
Do you see what the narratives did in our heads? They told us a little bit of how to live. But here is what we want to do. We don’t want to read a narrative and learn kind of subconciously. We want someone to give us three points from the story on how to live.
The Old Testament stories rarely ever do this. You basically have to make things up.
There are actually principles in the story that can actually make the story better and can be applied to MY life.
If we want life to make sense, and if we want life to be an exciting story we have to have the positive and negative charges in our life set by an authority figure that is true. In other words these stories that I read and watch and feed into my mind need to be stories that teach me what is good and what is foolish to pursue.
The elements of story in our lives are being negotiated all the time. Free market dynamics are negotiating all the time for the elements in our story. Commercialization is negotiating for the elements in my story. The messages commercialization is communicating to you is that you shouldn’t have any troubles in your life. You deserve to be happy. You shouldn’t encounter any kind of trouble in your life and if you will just buy this product you won’t have any troubles. That is the story that corporations really want you to live!
We are suckered into that story so easily, but God has a completely different story with different elements to help us live.
Story is in decline in our society.
Benjamin also has a story. Not as good. He hunts, he eats and then he shares what is left over. Not a story they are going to make a movie about any time soon.
We tell a story with our lives.
Sometimes you begin with the climax of the story and work backwards. You start with one scene — this is the key scene where you want your audience to feel a certain way at this point. Then you go back and write the story up to that point.
That climax is written in Scripture. The point where Jesus say, “Well done my good and faithful servant. Thanks for telling my your story. I loved the story you have written for me!”
Here’s the cool thing. There are a billion ways to get there! You have creative license. You have billions of ways to get there.
Tell a great story with your lives!
Closing prayer: Write every day line by line, page by page, hour by hour do this despite fear for above all else beyond all imagination and skill what the world asks from you is courage. Courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure as you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully, but write boldly! Then like the hero of the fable your dance will dazzle the world.
Let’s tell great stories. Let’s lead people through great stories. Let’s set the compass and positive charges of people around us in our culture, our families in our churches in our work places.
God be with you as you write your story!
