2 Timothy 3:10-4:8
What do you do for entertainment?
What’s better than any other form of entertainment is listening to people’s stories. One reason I’ve designed my research the way I have is so that I get to hear people’s stories. I find them fascinating.
Most of what we call entertainment is in the realm of amusement. To muse is to think , to ponder, to mull things over. Amuse is the opposite. It is brain-shut-off kind of stuff. The characters in the stories are like real people but they are not real people. True life stories, human interest stories, are not entertainment. People are more fascinating than any other form of entertainment – and their stories are real!
Paul’s second letter to Timothy may be the last letter Paul wrote. In it he reviewed his life as he passed the work on the younger man. Paul expresses satisfaction for a life well lived and a sense of achievement and fulfilment. If he had not met Jesus Paul would probably have become a highly respected professor in the University of Jerusalem, an honourable career but one that may have bored him to death. Instead, God intervened and Paul’s life was varied, challenging and totally fulfilling. His life has been written up by several authors and it makes quite a story.
It’s highly likely that every person we meet has an amazing story hidden inside them. And my friend, Donald Miller, thinks he’s figured out the four questions that will bring their story out of them. Donald is a writer and also the Director of Storyline, a programme designed to help people live better stories. So, quite naturally, Donald’s four questions have everything to do with how a story works.
Here’s Donald’s formula for telling a story:
1. A Character
2. who wants something.
3. and has to overcome conflict.
4. to get it.
Anyone’s story can be told in this format, whether it is one’s whole life or just the events of one day. For example, In the course of my research I’ve made contact with a guy named Tim and we’ve been trying to schedule a meeting so that I can hear his story. A week later we haven’t met but we will. As any serial-writer knows the story doesn’t have to be complete to be interesting.
One’s story is the account of one’s life so looking at one’s life as a story can affect the way one lives. You may remember a year or two back, the police were recruiting with ads that featured ‘better work stories’. While the work of a police officer may be more exciting than many other jobs, we know that following Jesus is the ultimate.
Each of Donald’s four questions relates to an element in this formula. Remembering the story formula helps us remember the questions.
So, here are the questions:
1. How do people describe who you are?
I like this questions because it makes people think. It’s not about what they do or who they know, it’s about how other people describe them. It makes people stop and think about how they’re perceived, who they are, what they love and so on. And almost like clock work, they tell you the truth about their positive characteristics and their faults, and they begin thinking about how they’d like to be different.
2. If there’s one main thing you want in life, what is it?
This is a question of the heart. A story is always about whether or not a character is going to get what they want, and what they want is what the whole story is about. If a character doesn’t know what they want, you’ve got a boring story, but if it’s clear, they live a much more exciting life. I love this question because it actually forces whoever we’re talking to to edit their story right then and there. Once they clarify what they want, their story and their life makes more sense and so it feels better.
3. What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome in life?
This is another beautiful question because it allows whoever I’m talking to to understand they are, in fact, a hero in a story. All heroes have to overcome conflict. And nearly every person in life has had to do it, too.
4. When you die, what do you want to have been known for?
Such a remarkable question. Humans have this amazing ability to edit their lives on the fly, and this is one of those questions that causes us to think about how we’re living. And it’s also a great way to get to the end of the story, to the hopeful happy ending of a life well lived.
So, there really is an amazing story living inside each of us. Try out these four questions if you really want to get to know somebody better than ever before.