It’s All About the Story

“I don’t regret the way I did life. I like the stories I am able to tell.” - an eighty-three year old, terminally ill gentleman

The above quote is from a story I read last weekend in The Simple Life. The elderly man told the author stories about his life, from the Great Depression onward. And after all the stories about the struggles, joys, pains, and thrills, that was his proclaimation over it all.

When I’m 83 years old, I want to be satisfied with the way I lived my life, and enjoy telling my story to others. This started me thinking about something else, too… at the end of my life, the stories are really all that’s left.

When we gather with your family at holidays like the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, do we reminisce about how much money you made way back when, how much time you volunteered, what your quarterly sales numbers were back in 1983? No, all that has faded into oblivion – it’s meaningless, irrelevant information. The conversation is about something hilarious that John said when he was three, or how you took your cousins “snipe hunting.”

All that’s left is story.

When a person has a disease like Alzheimer’s that begins to steal away their memories of the past, often the first things to go are facts and figures, and things that happened recently. The last to go? Stories, especially about people and events that happened in the distant past. All the numbers, all the information that was so important to us gives way.

All that’s left is story.

As a follower of Jesus, I know that my life is really all about the part I play in His story… the stories of our lives are relevant only because they fit into the Grand Story of the redemption of all things to Himself. Everything in my life that isn’t a part of His story is lost in the end. All the false measures of success I measure myself and others by… gone.

All that’s left is story.

It’s easy to get caught up in all the fluff, the busy work, the errands to run and the practice to get to, the blog post to write and the email to respond to. Living the simple life requires two things: eliminating all of the non-essential stuff we can, and being vigilant to keep everything in perspective, to not let anything take a higher priority than it should.

I made the comment to my wife last night that I want to live a life that’s full of stories… rich stories, memories that make us laugh when we remember them, adventures that were scary at the time but were worth it in the end. I want to live a life that’s Ridiculously Extraordinary, and better learn the Art of Great Things.

Every day I’m writing the words, paragraphs, and chapters of my story, and you are, too. My hope is that when I get done writing, it’ll be something that I’ll actually want to read!

What are you doing to make your story interesting? We’d love to hear about it in the comments. And if you enjoyed the post, please considering hitting the Like button or retweeting and sharing it with your  friends. Thanks!