Glory.
We all are called to live incredible, great, beautiful stories. We want to live stories where we are seen as beautiful or heroic. We want to live stories where we do things of great meaning and value. We want to live stories where we change not just our lives, but the lives of many.
We want to live stories that leave legacy.
Have you ever wondered why?
We want to live great stories because we have been created in the image of God. His image is glorious. The same “Wow!” we find in creation – Joshua Tree National Park, The Grand Canyon, The Badlands, The Himalayan Mountains – is within us.
There is glory within us (sometimes way deep down). We know it’s there. We intrinsically know if we live a great story, glory is nearby.
Epic
The last month, I’ve been leading a small group of people through a book called Epic. The writer, John Elderedge, argues we love story (fairytales, movies, books, etc) because it is written on our hearts. God is telling His own story, and we are all a part of .
The book is only a few chapters long (less than 100 pages), and in chapter 4, Elderedge uses a beautiful phrase that could easily be missed.
small stories
When Adam and Eve stood in the middle of the Garden and bit into the fruit, they attempted to gain a bigger role in their own story. They tried to tell God, He was no longer the lead role. However, they simply made their story smaller.
Small Stories
Each of us, if there is even a trace of a heartbeat within us, want to live great stories. Too many of us live small, insignificant stories.
Why?
Just like Adam and Eve, we’ve bought into a lie. If we can just take full control of our lives, if we can become God, we will play the lead role. Our story will be bigger.
God is funny though. He operates in a reverse economy. The more you give the more you get. To lead you must serve. Less is more. First is last.
If you want to stop living small and insignificant stories, you must be willing to lay down your dream, your goal, your life.
Yes, you.
This isn’t just a Christian thing. This is a principle that holds fast across all segments of society – religious and secular.
Take Steve Jobs. Jobs story is well known. He rose to fame, crashed and burned, and returned to glory. He lived a HUGE story.
It’s well documented Steve Jobs was no Jesus. He was not a servant leader, but something did change in him during the crash/desert period of his life. He stopped being about Steve Jobs only (small story), and he started being about a bigger purpose – Apple (HUGE story). He realized Apple was his legacy. He would be great if something bigger than him was great.
I’m no Steve Jobs, but I’ve learned some of those same lessons.
In 2011, I had dreams of taking over the photography blogging world. I was going to grow a massive enterprise. My goal was to help people. My goal was to bring people together. It didn’t happen.
I shifted. I changed. I laid me down.
Fast forward 3 years, and I’m part of a team with bigger and better goals and dreams that I ever had on my own. How this story ends in 30, 40, 50 years, I don’t know.
I do know I’m done with small stories.
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