For most of my life I feel I’ve lived in a shadow

Hiding there away from the bright sun light

Striving to shape myself after current trend or fashion

Refusing to acknowledge that I was dying inside

By filling my life up with more noise and static

I hoped to drown out the quite nudging I felt within

But like a traveler who lost somewhere in the darkness

I was left with no clue as to where or how to begin

I thought if I could be like that guy, then I too could be cool.

If I could just be that popular, I’d be the talk of the school

If I could just be like that guy, then every one would see

There is a real person who lives inside of me.

So I walked on in this shadow for days and days to come

I wandered back and forth finding myself further undone

I compromised myself to try harder to fit in

And still I found myself without a true friend

The more I tried to fit in the more I felt alone

The loneliness I felt was more than I ever have known

What I didn’t know is that there were other people, people just like me

Who were tired of trying to be what everyone else said to be

We thought if we could be like that girl, then we could be cool.

If we could be that popular, we’d be the talk of the school

If we could just be like that girl, then every one would see

That we all are people, who want to be seen.

Then one day I discovered, a treasure so worth the find

There was a way to be real, without the masks I hid behind

There was a Man named Jesus, who knows me just for me

He gave Himself to love me, so that I may be free.

Now I know that I want to be like Jesus, who cares what is cool

There is no need to be popular to share His love to my school

If I live my life like Jesus, then every one would see

That there is a God in heaven who died to set them free.

No more living in shadows, I have stepped into the Son

With this new found salvation I now that life has only begun.

Now I know that I want to be like Jesus, who cares what is cool

There is no need to be popular to share His love to my school

If I live my life like Jesus, then every one would see

That there is a God in heaven who died to set them free.

All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone. – Blaise Pascal

What are your thoughts on this statement? Can you sit in a quiet room alone. No TV. No book. Nothing. Just quiet?

The quiet bothers me more than I like to admit. When everything is quiet I am left alone with myself. Who I really am starts to surface. Wait. Is this a bad thing?

I am going to try this. I challenge you to do the same. Set aside an hour. Sit alone in a room where you are less likely to be distracted. No cell phones. No nothing. Totally unplug. Can you make it an hour? I don’t know if I can, but I am curious at what will happen.

I am betting the first time I try it I won’t make it, but if I make it for a bit I would say that is a start.

I have been writing songs for Marixa for the last 21 years. It will take forever to get out how much I love her.

Verse 1

I can honestly say that you are my best friend. I’ll be thankful for my whole entire life that I put wedding ring on your hand. It seems we’ve been together for a lifetime, but let me just say how clearly I remember how I felt our wedding day when we said

Chorus

Forever, Forever, I give to you my heart and so much more. Forever, Forever, to be with you my love, you and you alone, Forever.

Verse 2

And though some time has passed our love continues to grow. I look still forward to each day with more than I can show. You are the brightness of my mornings, and all day you shine loves light loves light. There’s not enough time to express to you my love, the way I feel inside.

Chorus

Forever, Forever, I give to you my heart and so much more. Forever, Forever, to be with you my love, you and you alone, Forever.

Chorus

Forever, Forever, I give to you my heart and so much more. Forever, Forever, to be with you my love, you and you alone, Forever.

I was in the library the other day looking around and I was struck with how many fiction books there were. Thousands. Ten thousand. All different. All waiting to be read. It made me do some thinking. The resulting thought is this: people love stories. Absolutely love them. But why?

There is a chance to get to go on an adventure, escape your own reality, follow characters who do things you wish you could do. And so much more. It intrigues us. It drives us. It haunts us. This thing called story is part of who we are.

I seldom remember a bunch of unrelated facts. Things aren’t interesting that way. Put it all together in the framework of a story though, then you have my attention. I will remember things this way. Story speaks to us. Calls us. Reminds us. Story is vital.

For instance: “John, how was work today?” “It was fine. Did some spreadsheets. Took some calls. Met a new coworker. Came home.” You get the gist of what John did for the day, but it doesn’t make you jump up and down to ask them the same question tomorrow.

Or this: “John, how was your day?” “It was a good day. Took me forever to get through some spreadsheets I was doing because Mark kept popping his head in my office wanting help on a project he is working on. I am a little swamped right now, but Mark is having some trouble at home and I was glad to help him. We also had a new lady start today. I think we really hit it off. She asked me for my number. We will see where it goes…” The story draws it out. Makes it intersting.

I went to see author Donald Miller speak once when he came through Oklahoma City. He was touring for his book called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It is such a good book. The book is about living a good story with your life. It is that theme that stuck with me. How do you do this?

The first question we have to ask is this: What makes a story good? Donald Miller put it this way. A story is a tale about a character who wants something and has to overcome conflict to get it. This is the basics of what a story is. If you think about all of the stories you love, it fits.

Whether it is Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, Pretty Woman, Secondhand Lions, or an other variety of stories, every story is focused on a character or set of characters who want something and have to overcome conflict to get it. The character stands at the end of the story different from the journey. They have achieved their goal. Won the girl. Saved the world. Whatever their goal was, it is done and their world is at peace once again.

We get very attached to the characters in the stories don’t we? You follow Mr. Anderson as he makes his discoveries about the Matrix. You see him struggle with the truth. You see him step into the identity of Neo as he begins to realize who he is. You see him overcome the conflict in the story (the agents) to help him towards his ultimate goal of ending the Matrix.

We feel what they feel don’t we? We get to experience all of it as they do. You are happy with them, sad when they hurt, we triumph as they do. Story takes us with them as they experience it all.

The question I have is this: What story are you telling? What is it that you want? What conflict do you have to overcome to achieve that goal? Can you answer those questions?

One thing that amazes me is that we will not stand for a boring story. Many people loved the movie “In the Bedroom”. If you are one of them, I apologize in advance for the next line. I hated it. It was boring. I left the theater about 25 minutes into it. Again, the critics loved it. You may have too, but it wasn’t the kind of story that kept my attention.

That being said, there have been years of my life that I settled for a boring story. I won’t sit for two hours and watch something that bores me, but I let the world pass me by, stuck in a rut. Zig Ziglar says the only difference between a rut and a grave is that the ends are kicked out in the rut.

If you are the main character in your story…what do you want? Where are you headed? You will have to endure some conflict to get there. In the end it is worth it though. Just imagine…living a story well told.

I have been a lot lately about goals. Being the new year, it fits. I was reading the other day about it and ran across this statement…It is never too late to be who you might have been. I read this in an article that was written by Mark Batterson about how he sets goals. It jumped off the page and hit me over the head. 

Mark is the pastor of a vibrant church in the Washington DC area. This line is one of the church’s core values. It is never too late to be who you might have become. That means that no matter how much time has gone by, you can still move toward a worthy dream. The dream may look a little different than it did when you first dreamed it, but it is worth pursuing all the same. The dream leads you to be more of who you really are. 

This made me reflect on an example from my life. My Grandma Willis was in her late 50s when she finished her art degree. She was quite the artist and quite the woman from what I remember and the stories I have been told. It was a proud day for her when she accomplished it. She achieved a dream that many people would have though her too old to have. She didn’t listen to the naysayers. She didn’t give it up.

There are pieces of her art still hanging in my parent’s house. I, for one, am glad she didn’t give up the dream. The paintings that she left behind are a reminder to keep moving forward. They are a reminder to keep going when others say you shouldn’t. That inspires me. She inspires me still…even though she has been gone 35 years.

How about you? What dream have you been holding on to? Has it been in you, dormant for years? Maybe it is time to dust it off. Is there a goal you have wanted to achieve? Maybe it is time to hold it in your hand. 

It is never too late to be who you might have become.