Donald Miller left home at the age of 21, traveling across the country until he ran out of money in Portland, Oregon where he lives today. He wrote the New York Times Bestseller Blue Like Jazz and started The Belmont Foundation, which is recruiting 10,000 mentors from 1,000 churches as a response to fatherlessness in America.
When he spoke at The Story Conference last week I was listening.
Donald said, "A story can't be meaningful without conflict. Conflict comes when you don't get what you want. Adam faced conflict. Adam experienced loneliness, an emotion Adam didn't want to experience. But the only way a character becomes a better person is by going through conflict. (Picture Scrooge.) Pain changes things. The conflict lends value to the thing the person wants to attain. So what do you want? We should want something, and there should be a reason we count it all joy when we encounter various trials."
Miller is on to something...
James 1:2-4 - Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.
The story conference sounds like it was very full of good resource, Thanks for sharing these highlights for us.
RW
Posted by: RW | November 05, 2009 at 10:13 AM