If I am going to live the best possible life on Earth, I must be willing to be the hero of my story. This will make my life difficult because heroes always face obstacles which are difficult and dangerous. Obviously this takes courage, but it also takes intentionality to move toward the difficult and dangerous where the possibility of failure is always present. No hero choses that which is easy and safe. Only by being willing to face down obstacles can I hope to lead the best possible life.
At the end of last year, I had the privilege of teaching an English class at South High School. I taught the
elements of a good story. It wasn’t rocket science. Using film clips from several movies, I taught about character development, setting, the protagonist and the antagonist. It was what you would expect from a high school English class. I also suggested that our lives are stories that are being lived out every day, and that some students were living good stories, some were living poor stories, and others were living boring stories; stories which were neither good nor bad, they just didn’t have an exciting plot.
HEROES AND THEIR OBSTACLES
I suggested that our class of 90 minutes could be seen as a story with plot, a hero, and a villain. I told the students that in a good story there is always a hero who has obstacles to overcome. (In this scenario I like to see myself as the hero, and my obstacles are bored and disinterested students.) It is the obstacles that make the story interesting, and most often the bigger the obstacles the better the story. Without a hero, and without obstacles, there would not be much of a story. Often, we see the goal of our lives as avoiding obstacles. But it is facing obstacles that makes life exciting and allows us to live the best possible story.
These are not new thoughts for me, and I have stolen most of my ideas from Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. What is new for me, since teaching this class, is that almost every day, often several times during the day, I ask myself, “What are the obstacles I need to overcome, and how will I be the hero of my story?”
THE VALUE OF OBSTACLES
Sometimes the obstacle in front me seems impossible to overcome. Last week I was teaching a class the teacher had warned me would be difficult, and the students entered the room looking and acting totally apathetic. I was tempted to just take the attendance and keep control of the class for the hour. But that is NOT what a hero would do. A hero would look the obstacle straight in the eye and move to conquer. Because my deepest desire is to live the best possible life, and to be the hero of my own story, I did my best to engage and entertain the students. I was not very successful, but I don’t feel bad about that; heroes often fail.
One of the obstacles I face is the routine of a pleasant life. Some routine is good, but right now my life is really comfortable, and I know that if I am really going to be a hero, I need adventure. I can find that adventure by sending a text, making a phone call, or taking a few moments to think about how I can serve others. It is about being proactive and deliberately moving outside of my comfortable routine which will make a good story-and make me the hero of my own life.
COMFORT IS THE ENEMY
Today I am in knots (scared) over the obstacle that is currently in front me. I am not sure I will be able to overcome it, and it will be painful to move toward it. The obstacle is an important relationship which I want to restore, and I am not sure my apology will be accepted. Like all good stories, the outcome is uncertain. It is painful because the break in the relationship is my fault. Like all heroes, I am flawed. I misread the situation and failed to act when I should have. I need to make a good apology and hope it will be accepted, but there are no guarantees.
For years I have said that comfort was the enemy of a good life, and if I want a good life, I must move toward situations which are uncomfortable and difficult. Since reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years I have thought often about the story I am living. But it wasn’t until I taught that English class in the spring that I began to think of myself as the hero of every class that I teach and every day that I live.
I pray that you are learning and growing into the hero of your own story. And I pray that this leads you to living the best possible life.
