Donald Miller, Christian author and speaker, gave students his “rules to living a meaningful life” in The Gathering on Thursday.
“The things it takes to live a good story are the same things it takes to live an interesting life,” Miller said, explaining that he learned a lot about storytelling while working with experts to produce the movie version of his book Blue Like Jazz, which will appear in theaters April 13.
Miller said people have the ability to choose to live an interesting, enjoyable life or a boring, meaningless one.
“The things that we’re doing with our lives actually shape whether or not we appreciate it,” he said.
According to Miller, the first step toward living an interesting life is “you need to want something.”
Miller said the reason people get bored during movies is the same reason they feel that life is meaningless–it’s unclear what the protagonist wants.
“If I paused your life right now,” Miller asked, “and came to your closest friends and asked, ‘Ok, what do they want?’ Would anybody know?”
Miller said he thinks people believe they have to want only God’s specific plan for their lives. But, Miller said he believes God doesn’t always have a detailed plan but allows people to choose what they do with their lives.
He said too many people view God as “a dysfunctional dad who is controlling.”
“I just see this picture of God as a dad, and He rolls out this big piece of butcher paper on the floor and He gives you a box of crayons,” Miller said, sharing his perspective. “And you and God get to sit down with the butcher paper and draw whatever you want within reason. The people who understand this change the world.”
People are so afraid of doing something that might be outside of God’s specific plan that they do nothing, Miller explained. He said people need to understand that they will fail sometimes, but “God is fine with it. God’s whole point with this is to bond with you in the doing.”
Conflict is the second thing Miller said is necessary for living a meaningful life.
“The things that we want have to be difficult and challenging,” Miller said, “and we have to actually risk failure, or the story isn’t interesting.”
“It’s the conflict in our lives that causes us to value things,” he said.
He told students to go home and journal about the things they want and then to imagine a movie about each thing. “If the movie stinks, cross it off your list,” he said.
Miller also encouraged students to “edit on the fly.” He said they should consider what they’re doing and determine if they would want it to be a scene in the movie of their life. If not, don’t do it.
“And if you want to live a really, really great story, want something that’s sacrificial,” Miller said. “I mean, want something that helps somebody else, want something that’s deeply relational, that’s connected to love.”