We are the stories we tell ourselves, but not in the simple way where we just get to dictate everything. The world is not a blank screen; there is a big story happening around us, and we all fit into it.
Your actual life is a product of the interaction between the big story going on around you and the story you tell. If you tell yourself nothing but kitten and rainbow stories, you don’t get a kitten-and-rainbow life; what you get is a life where you enjoy some things and are hopelessly out of touch with others. If you tell yourself nothing but grim stories? Same, without the enjoyment. Some people seem to like it that way, but neither of these kinds of folks accomplish much, nor are they much fun to be around.
But if you can tell yourself a story where everything is not perfect, but it is meaningful; where you fail, but there’s room to keep trying; where you have a purpose, even if you don’t quite know what it is yet…then the story of your little world has gear-teeth to mesh with the story of the world that is happening around you.
That’s when you start to get somewhere.
Full Contact Christianity 