Authorship

My favorite podcast, The Moth, has a closing tagline that I love. “Live a story-worthy life.

Each of our lives are story-worthy. Most just choose not to tell it.

Inner discourse interests me. Each of us tells ourselves a first-person story about ourselves all day, every day. (Though sometimes a persons inner-dialog is really in the 3rd person, which is equally interesting.) Each human can look back,  start at the beginning, and articulating memories and impressions in varying degrees of detail. Facts are painted and repainted to fit our story. And as time goes on we struggle to distinguish between what really happened and what we told ourselves has happened. Many of us have completely re-written the inner discourse so that they are the hero or they are the victim or somewhere in between.

Facts are just part of our memories mashed potatoes of recollection and story. But the tone and emphasis on positive and negative implications of those facts are the gravy which covers our memory.

I’m not a psychologist– but I understand that a task for a therapist is to help shape & help repair the inner dialog.

Helping a person recognize that moment-by-moment they are telling themselves a story– And retraining those super secret, almost supernaturally uncontrollable thoughts in your mind can truly transform you from the inside out.

What I find truly fascinating is that each of us tells our story with our very lives. While we simultaneously tell ourselves a story about ourselves we are writing a real-life story about ourselves by our actions.

Here’s the point: We don’t get to control what happens to us. In our lives the amazing comes as often as the tragedy. We don’t always get to choose the circumstances. Sometimes evil happens. Sometimes the circumstances are all against you. And many time no one would blame you if you listened to the advice of Job’s wife… “Why don’t you just curse God and die.”

You see, we always get to choose our physical, emotional, and spiritual response.

You always get to write your response. You are the author of your story.

The Apostle Paul speaks to this so well:

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Amen.


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3 responses to “Authorship”

  1. Tony Myles Avatar

    Totally agree with the spirit of your post. Too many people cry foul when they need to respond with ownership.

    But… to think about language for a moment, calling ourselves the Author can be an unconscious removal of God from that role. I’d prefer to think of it more as God’s the author, I’m the pen and the world is the stationary… and sometimes I’m handed elegant paper, and other times I’m handed toilet paper. If I remember I’m the pen then I can let the Author worry about what’s written and how it’s written.

    1. Adam McLane Avatar

      Isn’t this the nature of free will? Don’t we have the power to decide how we respond, even to God? He can lay all of the opportunity before us but it is up to us to decide what to do with it. 

      Right?

  2. Ricky Lewis Avatar

    This reminds me of narrative therapy. You should look that up. I would say it sounds like what you are saying. So to speak to Tony’s point, it would be like God is the…Editor maybe. He allows us to write the script but helps us edit toward a better story. It is still free will but with help from someone that sees the big picture better.
    Maybe that makes sense and maybe it doesn’t but I have loved this idea of story ever since reading Miller’s book A Million Miles…
    Thanks for the post!

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