I have been struck a lot lately by the amount that our desire and deciding what our story will be determines where we go and what we do with our lives. Two thoughts that I ran into this week made me stop dead in my tracks and think about what kind of a man I am becoming. One was a quote from a book I am reading called Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton:

“The depth of desire has a great deal to do with the outcome of our life. Often, those who accomplish what they set out to do in life are not those who are the most talented or gifted or who have the best opportunities. Often they are the ones who are most deeply in touch with how badly they want whatever they want; they are the ones who consistently refuse to be deterred by the things that many of us allow to become excuses.”

The other was a talk by Donald Miller about Our Story. It was a great reminder to me that each day every action is part of the story line of my life. The final quote by Miller was this:

“Our stories get written by what we do. Not by what we think or what we feel or what we want. That doesn’t count when you write a story. Its only written by what we do.”

What kind of a story am I creating? What will my legacy be? How will my wife speak of me when we are old and grey? How will my children speak of me when they are grown and gone? Who will I love and be loved by? What friends will I go the distance with? Who will exeperience God’s goodness as a result of my actions?

At the end of the day, when my life on this side of eternity ends and I pass on to the other side. What I want, my deep desire, what I want to determine my actions, is to be known as a man who was sold out for the mission of Jesus Christ on this earth – willing to lay down everything for Him. I fall way short most of the time but what I desire is to be that kind of man and to create that kind of a story.

I was talking to a good friend in Hawaii last night on Skype and he quoted a teacher he had learned from this week who said:

“Is the life that your living worthy of the death that Jesus died?”

This is my one and only life. My one chance. I want to lay it all out there and love people and be loved in it. Someday I’ll go home and my deep desire is to hear “well done Greg, your a good and faithful servant”.

grace.mercy.peace.truth.love.action