Beyond entertainment: Challenge your readers to “do a doggie head-tilt”

 

You want to change your readers, not just entertain them.

 

Be sure at least some of your memoir’s stories challenge your readers to think.

 

Make them question.

 

Motivate them to stretch and wrestle with issues.

 

Move them to examine their assumptions and expectations to see if they’re valid.

 

Challenge your readers to do what Mike Metzger calls “a doggie head-tilt.” To look at things differently than before. Mike says, “If your head never tilts, your mind never changes.”

 

Persuade readers to tilt their heads and look at issues from another angle. To rethink what they believe. To reevaluate—and to maybe arrive at a different conclusion than they ever have before.

 

Open their minds to other possibilities, other interpretations, or other meanings.

 

Write stories that will give readers

a holy discontent with things that are not right in their lives—

not to make them wallow in guilt,

but to offer them God-pleasing options.

James 4:8-10 comes to mind:

“Come close to God, and God will come close to you. . . .

Purify your hearts,

for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. . . .

Humble yourselves before the Lord,

and He will lift you up in honor.”

Also, see John 14:27.

 

Write stories that will give readers

a holy discontent with the ways of the world—

materialism: possessions and trinkets,

meaningless mindsets and pursuits—and instead

inspire them to live lives of God-centered

substance and purpose.

Elaborate on what Jesus meant when he said,

“You do not belong to the world,

but I have chosen you out of the world” (John 15:19).

Also, see Romans 12:2.

 

The following prayer teems with ideas for your memoir:

 

Disturb us, Lord, when

We are too well pleased with ourselves,

When our dreams have come true

Because we have dreamed too little,

When we arrive safely

Because we sailed too close to the shore.

 

Disturb us, Lord, when

With the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst

For the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life,

We have ceased to dream of eternity

And in our effort to build a new earth,

We have allowed our vision

Of the new Heaven to dim.

 

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,

To venture on wilder seas

Where storms will show Your mastery;

Where losing sight of land,

We shall find the stars.

 

We ask You to push back

The horizons of our hopes;

And to push into the future

In strength, courage, hope, and love.

Attributed to Sir Francis Drake, 1577

 

Look at the first couple of lines: “Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves.”

• What does “too well pleased with ourselves” mean to you, specifically?
• What past events come to mind?
• When were you too pleased with yourself? Or was someone else too pleased with himself?
• What were the results of that mindset?
• Why would/should we pray for God to disturb us over that attitude? What Bible verses illustrate that?
• What lessons can you share with your readers?

 

Look at the next couple of lines: “Disturb us, Lord, when . . . our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little.”

• What does dreaming “too little” mean?
• When did you, or someone you know, dream too little?
• What was the result?
• Why should we want God to disturb our wimpy dreams?
• Tell readers the lessons you learned and how things could have been done differently. In this way, you are mentoring your readers.

 

Sift through your memories for stories that illustrate “Disturb us, Lord, when . . . we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore,” and when we focus on an “abundance of things.”

 

Then look at the third stanza.

• When did a different you dare more boldly and venture into wilder seas where, as a result, storms showed you God’s mastery?
• What can you write about “discovering the stars”?
• You’ll want to explain what the following means: “wider seas,” “storms,” “God’s mastery,” “losing sight of the land,” and finding “stars.”

 

Remember,

writing your memoir is not just a hobby.

It’s a ministry.

 

God can use your story to guide, inspire, encourage, influence, motivate, and empower.

 

“Sometimes a particular story, or version of a story, 

is so potent,” says Ayd Instone, 

“that it becomes so interwoven in our lives 

that it defines the direction our life story takes 

and modifies behavior. . . .”

 

In a similar way, your memoir can change your readers.

 

Challenge them to “do a doggie head-tilt.”

 

Be intentional. Make it happen.