Living A Better Story

I want to live a better story.

Don't you?

God has done a lot in my story but sometimes I feel, well, stuck.

Like right now.

I need help.

A friend.

A guide.

Someone who's walking a little further ahead and has some things to share.

Enter Don Miller's Seminar.

The Lord has really used this fella in my life since the New Year (starting with reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years)... something about the courage in which he's going after life and trusting in God's strength to write a better story.

Don is doing a whole weekend seminar/workshop where I can get away and "rethink" my story and get some guidance to clear out some of the fog on the path lately. I could win a free trip up with a friend to attend the conference, stay at a swanky hotel (and we all know how I feel about nice hotels), get a gift (com'mon people doesn't this sound created for yours truly?)

This blog is my submission, per se. I did an impromptu little "video blog" about why I hope to go:

What I didn't say is I have some of the vision, I just don't know how to get there, hence, why I said "stuck" oodles and oodles of times (I did say it was impromptu... external processing people for the whole freggin' blogging world to see?!).

• I believe I have a message of hope and healing to share with people (especially women) that will release them to deeper intimacy with God and greater clarity to experience the Kingdom. My soul care, workshops, and speaking times truly help people fall more in love with the Lord and the by-product is partnering with Him to see who they are in the Kingdom and what they bring of him as an image bearer to the everyday world. (Ironic isn't it? I still struggle with this so much and yet this is what He has imparted in me to share).
• I want to mentor mentors (so they'll stay in the game and more free to love).
• I have a manuscript (working title Brokenhearted: The Unexpected Journey to Mending Our Souls) and I want to get it published. I have a story that lends itself to helping other people look in on theirs and experience transformation and love for God (by the way, I am no Don Miller but I skimmed a bit of Father Fiction and saw Don dialogues with his mentor the way I do in my book which made me feel, well, good).
• I love to speak (it's a weird deal, but I feel God's pleasure and pursuit profoundly as I do it), I just struggle building the network and people to talk with now that I'm not working for a big name christian ministry.
• I want to build a retreat center and/or team that travels (with a few compadres) where pastors, leaders, lay people, and missionaries can come for respite. I truly believe these are often the forgotten ones. I long for them to experience: a safe place to get away in nature (or cozy up if they are a film chick like yours truly), a guided time to reflect on their stories, quaint nooks and crannies for time with God and each other, soul care & healing, refreshment....

I have bits and pieces of the dream but I struggle getting there, knowing timing, how to go about it, wrestling with still being single (and always thinking this is something I would share in with my husband and in some ways don't feel totally capable to do without him. And if not him, who would the team be besides Linds and Elizabeth?),...

When I left full-time ministry I did it with courage and a deep abiding sense, "This is the way, walk in it..." Now two years later I'm re-evaluating. I love living near my family but feel stuck with very few job opportunities to make it work. I am working part-time at SBUX but desperately in need of some financial stability all the while living in the tension of the "bigger story" that's been revealed to me (well, a little here and a little there).

So this is a little window as to why I want to go and feel primed for it. Hoping the conference may be a turning point and help get some things rolling.

Now enough about me. Here's how Donald describes it:

Living a Better Story Seminar from All Things Converge Podcast on Vimeo.

Go to www.donmilleris.com/conference to register! It's selling out, so hurry...

Hopefully we'll meet there.

p.s. gotta work on those rolling eyes (o; and sorry for the lame voice quality ~)o;