This week Hunter Davis (dadfieldguide.com) presented on becoming a family on a mission.

What is the best movie you ever watched? What about the worst movie?

What if you wanted to make your family story, and you could craft it?

The Enemy: The Whirlwind

Our whirlwind is everyday life. It is our bills, our traffic jams, and our everyday routine. It is the tyranny of the urgent.

It’s hard to write our story if we can’t get outside our lives and look in. We have to get outside of our story to look at it.

The whirlwind has a massive effect on our life:

• We become unclear on what we want the story of our life, marriage, and family to be about.
• We can end up feeling, exhausted, confused, and a lack of sense of meaning.

The Narrative Void

We end up with the narrative void – looking at the screen on the theater of our lives and all these other screens have run their course.

We might not see anything on the screenWe don’t feel involved in the story. We don’t want to watch our own life movie.

Life feels very different when we are aren’t clear on our story. Not knowing what story we want to tell has serious implications.

When we don’t know what story we are living into, it’s hard to see. It’s also hard to lead our family and children forward.

“Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit?”

-Jesus

Jon Tyson often stated (paraphrased, but want to reference him) that If we don’t have a more compelling story than the narrative that the world gives our children, then they will live the story that is most appealing.

I wonder if we actually have a narrative that is more compelling than the one that our Western, American Culture is presenting to us. If we do, then it should be apparent. We would then be able to enjoy the journey.

To do that we have to script a good story.

Do you want a new story for you and your family to live in?

Jesus gives people incredible freedom to choose the story that they want. He invites us into a greater story. The story of the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

John 5:6

Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man answered, “Master, I want to see!”

– Mark 10:51

If you don’t like the story you are living in you can edit it. You can change it. God has not made us robots. God has made us co-authors.

What if the passions and curiosities in your heart were put there by God? What if he has put a pen in your hand?

— Hunter Davis (paraphrased)

3 keys to a good story

1. The character must want something specific and interesting.
2. The character must fight for something bigger than themselves.
3. The character must be willing to transform (this is the hardest part)

Are you willing to move from “Drifting and Confused” to “Focused and United”?

What Story will your life tell?

What Story will your family tell?

How will you bring the story to life?

Join us this Friday as we continue writing the story together

Watch the full keynote here: