Well it has been a while hasn’t it?

You know I keep telling myself.  “I’ll update that blog one day.”  And then the next day I’ll say.  “You know I’m probably not going to update that blog again.”  It’s like I’ve developed my own little cycle that I’m going through.  Ever since I got back from Florida I’ve gone back to writing a lot.  I’ve made mention before that I love to write and if I could just one day write the next big novel and just live as a writer all my life I could so go for that.

But life doesn’t turn out the way we’d want it to.  So I’ll just keep living and be happy that I’m still alive.  Anyways before this year I had written two novel lengths stories (that of course will never see the light of day again).  You should know that I’m someone who knows that anything they write, draw, make is terrible.  And so these past weeks have been very weird for me.  Like I said I’ve been writing a lot and am currently in the beginning stages of writing something that I hope may grace the eyes of a publisher one day.  Now I know what you’re thinking.  I’m 17 and dreaming way too big.  And you’re right.  The chances of someone of my age getting a story published is very slim.  But I write for the love of it so it’s all good.  😀

But that’s not what I’ve really been thinking about lately.  When I read I really like how the endings really put together this greater meaning of the story.  And how there always seems to be something to learn.   And so I’ve been sitting down lately and writing (more planning really) what I want to be learned through this particular story (even though no more than my family and friends will ever read it).  And I think I’ve realized just how important story telling is.  You see I’ve noticed that I’ve unintentionally set up a story that will actually teach me some things.

But what I want to share with you here in this blog post is something that I have found will be taught  by one particular character in my story.  You see I was thinking about where I wanted to take him and what I wanted him to do in the story.  What I realized was that this particular character seemed to be a blue print of most of our life’s.

He was just a regular guy who found himself in the middle of the conflict.  There was nothing special about him.  He had no special powers, he did nothing great and he didn’t sacrifice himself for anyone.  This guy was just normal compared to all the other characters.  And the question arose “Why should this guy even be included?”  It’s a lot like the question we ask ourselves huh?  Why should I be here?  What is God’s plan for me?  Why is it that when everyone else is doing these great things and getting their 15 minutes of fame that I’m left here with nothing?  But then I thought.  And I looked at the big picture.  This particular character would die.  He’d die half way through the book and could have just been forgotten.  He didn’t die in some way in which the world was saved or anything and he didn’t save anyones life.

Yet at the same time it’s what happened because he died that changed things.  You see it was the little things that he did in his life that changed other characters and through the other characters they changed others and it created this chain.  And I realized that through this particular characters death not only was one, two or three life’s changed but the entire story was changed.

And that’s something I think more people need to realize.  You know when we are young everyone wants to be famous.  They want to be an actor/actress or they want to direct movies or make games or write the next great novel or just make this great impact on the world.  We want to be a somebody.  And you know we never hear anyone say: “Yeah, I think I’ll bag groceries at Kroger when I grow up!”   Yet in reality most of our dreams just don’t happen.

When I look at this character I’m sure he’d love to have been famous like the ones around him.  But he wasn’t.  Few knew his name, where he was from and why he was there.  Yet for some reason he made a bigger impact than anyone else in that story.  And I was so confused as to why.  He was a nobody.  He wasn’t special.  He didn’t have the fame.  He didn’t save the world.  Then I thought about the smaller picture.  It was the person he was.  It was the fact that he changed the way another character thought about other people.

And that’s what I think some of us need to realize.  We don’t have to be famous, we don’t have to write an inspirational novel and we don’t have to be the next president to change the world.  Heck we don’t even have to change the world.  I always tell myself this.  “If I can change just one persons life for the better than I’ll have considered my life worth living.”  Have you ever asked yourself this?  Have you ever told yourself that if one persons life is changed by something that you’ve done then you’ll be happy?  My dad and I were talking and decided that we want to see our funeral.  We want to know how we changed people.  I want to know what was it about me that affected others.

I think as Christians this is something we should constantly strive for.  We should always be saying that we’re going to live in such a way that people decide to change their lives for the better.  Something most people would call leading others to Christ.  So instead of saying.  “When I grow up I want to be a…”  how about we start saying.  “When I am grow up I may be your average person but I’ll always do what I can to change someones life for the better.”

It was the things that Jesus did in his life that changed people.  It is the things that we do in our life’s that will have an effect on others as well.  So I wonder what may happen if we stop dreaming about becoming famous and pay more attention to the way that we live our life’s?

How many of you have similar goals as well?  How many of you would be happy if you changed someones life for the better just because of the way you live your life?