Do you know what the fine line is between a hero and a villain in a movie a screenplay or a story? I mean a hero can have a drinking problem, a hero can have depression a hero can have low self esteem a hero can have all this kind of stuff. But you know what a hero can’t do? A hero can’t think of himself as better than other people. The second a hero thinks of himself as better than other people he becomes a villain. It’s true. If you think about the story that you and I are writing with our lives, this is a very true principle. We are told over and over in scripture, do not think to highly or to lowly of yourself. Don’t do it. What is God saying? I want you to write a great story, here’s how. And there’s so many of us who day after day after day, we get tricked into writing bad stories. We get stuff in our story that’s literally there and you can’t get it out, you get an attitude of arrogance in our story and we can’t get it out.
Think objectively about your story, think about the way you talk to your wife, think about the way you talk to your kids, think about the way we treat our friends. If they were making a movie and the character talked to their wife the way you talk to your wife, is that a good character or a bad character? If it’s a bad character in a movie it’s not a good character in life. Stories are based on life. We kind of think, “I can get away with this” and “this is understandable”, Hold on! Jesus actually talks about this, there’s a passage in Philippians where Paul says something about Christ that I think is really awesome, it is Philippians chapter 2, verse 3.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”
I mean there just this sense of, “Guys you gotta get low” or the story doesn’t work, the story doesn’t inspire. And what are we actually teaching people if we are arrogant. I am telling a story with my life and you are telling a story with your life. And when we are telling stories we are setting the compass of those around us and stories are the most powerful way to teach. And so our kids are learning from us what is good what is right, what is wrong. Your sons are learning how to talk to a woman, your daughters are learning how to treat a man and they are learning it through the narrative of our stories and God is saying I want us to tell better stories through our lives.
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