You didn’t think joy could change a person, did you? But it’s conflict that changes a person.
*I just want to preface this by saying theses are not all my thoughts, actually I probably didn’t come up with much of the topic. The following is just some stuff I have learned / talked about theses past few months.*
- Peace n Blessin’s, Peace n Blessin’s
Love, what is it? Can you love someone who is dead? Everyone changes, but those who have passed on cannot change. How do you know that you would still “love” them? You love the idea of them. There is certain amount of water in the world. The same water that wiped out New Orleans is the same water that could bring a drought to an end for people in a dry spell and save them. Is there a certain amount of pain in the world and can there only be so much pain at one point in time present. We run into conflict and it gives us minor set backs on our journey or adventure to the top of the mountain. Donald Miller says to embrace conflict because you can only understand pleasure through conflict. So struggling is not always a bad thing. It might not be fun but if you fight through it something good can come out of it. Donald Miller’s new book is titled A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and in it he talks about his personal to talk about his experiences with God. Donald Miller took a unique approach to his speaking that really resonated with me. He talked about life as if it was a book or a movie, in that every good book or movie needs conflict to make it interesting and that conflict leads to a climatic scene with in turn leads to resolution. If there is no conflict present the writer with create conflict just to “get things rolling”. He says we are all in search of a Summit; we all crave to be at the top of the mountain. We run into conflict and it gives us minor set backs on our journey or adventure to the top of the mountain. Donald says to embrace conflict because you can only understand pleasure through conflict. So struggling is not always a bad thing. It might not be fun but if you fight through it something good can come out of it. Miller talked about conflict in life and how without the conflict or struggle life would be, well not life. It is through conflict that certain things immerge. Another question addressed was, are we suppose to experience negative emotions in life or are we doing something wrong? Some people believe that negative emotions are bad and that God should not make us suffer through them. Donald went onto explain that just because we experience conflict we are not being punished. In Genesis, God sees that Adam is lonely so he creates Eve. God pushes Adam and creates a sense on conflict with in him. God tell Adam to name all of the animals, not an easy task. Donald also talked about how theology is becoming a sales pitch or advertisement rather than a way of living and thinking. Miller worked for an advertising agency at one point in his life and explains to use what seemed to be the simplest advertising strategy ever. First, convince your target audience that they are unhappy or incomplete and second, convince them that your produce with fill the hole they have and make them happy. It is so simple yet so true. Some people go on the belief that “only Jesus will fill you” or “you will only be happy with Jesus”, this is the same concept. These statements may be true but there is definitely more to life than that. All of life’s conflict leads to the climactic scene, “We long for a resolution to the tension that exists”, says Donald. Many Christians go by the belief that the climactic scene in their life in when they met Jesus or the acknowledgment that Jesus died for our sins and came back. These may be true but Donald pushed us to see that the climatic scene in our lives, what we live for is that when we are in heaven with God and he sees his son within us. Miller says, “Only through conflict can you value what is attained.” In the coffee house session in the Hunter Welcome Center Miller read a chapter from his book that was still dealing with this idea of conflict in life. In the chapter he read he talks about how he was at a seminar by Robert McKee and McKee says something that really hit close to me and make me rethink past struggles. McKee says in his seminar:
You have to take your character to the place where they just can’t take it anymore. You’ve been there, haven’t you? You’ve been out on the ledge. The marriage is over now, the dream is over now, nothing good can come from this. Writing a story isn’t about making your peaceful fantasies come true. The whole point of the story is the character arc. You didn’t think joy could change a person, did you? Joy is what you feel when the conflict is over. But it’s conflict that changes a person. You put your characters through hell. You put them through hell. That’s the only way we change.
This whole perspective that conflict is good is going to make me rethink the way I deal with struggles. Not that they are away of God testing me or punishing me but that when I come out of it I will be a stronger person for doing so. It’s basically the whole idea of that which does not kills you makes you stronger.”
