Donald Miller and Our Love/Hate for Change

I recently purchased a DVD of a writing workshop presented by Donald Miller. Miller has written several popular books, the most notable being Blue Like Jazz.

It has been interesting to listen to this best-selling author as he describes the art of telling an interesting story. I think what he has to say has something to teach me that’s not only applicable to writing, but also to preaching.

One the the interesting paradoxes that emerges from his presentation has to do with change. Miller describes how many stories depict how a character changes as the story progresses. This is call the character arc.

Readers and listeners find a character arc interesting says Miller because people want to change. He maintains that the desire for change, for transformation is inherent in the human condition. People are dissatisfied with their lives so they look for change.

Miller is describing how good stories work, but he also is on to something about human beings. Just look at advertising. Advertisers try to convince us that we are dissatisfied and then offer their product as a way of achieving the change (they tell us) we need.

Now here’s the irony. Most characters ( and most people) don’t want to change. People often need something that causes them to change. In writing that’s called the inciting incident. It usually happens near the beginning of a well-constructed story and it cause the character to change or to want to change. Often it is a door of no return because the character can’t go back to the way things were before.

Frodo receives a ring that he has to destroy. The fairy godmother makes it possible for Cinderella to go to the ball.

That’s the paradox of change. We all know that we aren’t perfect, that we need to change in many ways. Yet, we also resist change because change upsets the balance in our lives. We prefer to be comfortable and often it takes an inciting incident in our lives to upset our lives and to lead us to change.

That’s why we like to tell good stories and to hear them. A good story mirrors what happens, what we need to have happen in our lives.

So what’s the change you need in your life? What’s the change we need in our congregation? And what’s going to be the inciting incident that will lead us to that point of no return where we have to change because we have no choice? Those are good questions for us to consider. After all, we are all human and every human is in need of transformation.