The author, Donald Miller, states that no movie is about a man who really wants to buy a Volvo. We aren't lining up in the movie theaters to watch the man gently pat his precious car as tears stream down his face, driving his baby out of the parking lot. It wouldn't make a good movie. It would bore us.
Then he goes on to state that while we know that such a plot wouldn't intrigue an audience, many people in the audience are living stories that are very similar to the boring plot line. We try to save money for a car, or we try really hard to get good grades, or we play video games religiously or we try to get a raise or promotion in our job. We are living stories that even we would admit wouldn't interest us. This metaphor gripped me, because in all honesty, I'm living a fairly boring story.
I go to school, in which I get good grades. I go to church, and enjoy it. I play piano, and I play it a lot. I read books, a lot. I listen to music. I text. But where is all this going? To what end are my actions taking me? To a decent job with a good family? To a life of comfort, with no struggles, and not much to fight for? That's a fine life, but where's the story? Where's me taking a risk, developing as a character, changing something that needs to change? Why am I content living a life that wouldn't even excite me if I were watching it as a movie?
The most popular movie is a movie centralizing in the romance. A man desperately loves a woman, and he fights through his own flaws and the circumstances that he's in, so that he can woo the woman. That's all well and good, but I don't want that to be the only indicator of a life well lived. I don't want to base my life over wooing my love. I win her love, then what? "Happily ever after" doesn't really work in reality. There's conflicts, and jobs, and circumstances, and maybe 50+ more years of living. When I get married, then what? My identity has been entirely defined by my spouse, and I have wooed her. Now what to do with the remainder of my life? Is it over at the altar, and the rest is the credits? No, there's something more that I have to be living for,
I think it has something to do with taking risks. Being daring. Stepping out of the known and the comfortable and going into the necessary. Into the unknown, the stuff that changes lives. Not buying a Volvo, even though that's fine. Not wooing a woman, even though that's a beautiful thing. That's not my chief end. I'm convinced that my job is to let God be known. I think my job is to love like Jesus loved. Revolutionary love. Love that's not dependent on the other person's affections. But an unconditional love that changes lives and changes circumstances, despite the risk. It's my time to step out of the audience and into the story line. It's time for me take a risk and to live a good story, marked by a complete faith in God and in boldness and daring. The only thing stopping me is me. So will I step out of the boat, or stay in my comfort? Will I be changed by love and will I love radically? To be honest, I don't know. But I know which way I want to go, but wanting to walk on water and stepping out of the boat are two completely different subjects. And yet Love drives me, motivates me, and changes me, whenever I come in true contact with it.
"May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you." - 1 Thessalonians 3:12
