Choose the Better Story

The stories worth telling start where comfort ends.

When someone gives our eulogy, no one reads our LinkedIn profile. They don’t list quarterly goals achieved or inboxes cleared. They tell stories—those moments when we stopped playing it safe and actually lived.

David Brooks distinguishes between “résumé virtues” and “eulogy virtues.” Résumé virtues are skills and accomplishments. Eulogy virtues are what they talk about when we die.

George Mack notes that people at a funeral tend to talk about the times when people "broke out of the median distribution of human behavior and displayed their uniqueness."

But too often we resist those choices.

Instead, we drift toward what Pope Francis called an “anaesthetized” life. We numb ourselves with comfort. We stick with the status quo and avoid rocking the boat.

Francis urged otherwise in Christus Vivit: “Take risks, even if it means making mistakes… Open the door of the cage, go out and fly! Please, don’t take early retirement.”

Christianity is a story of those who refused comfort: fishermen who left their nets, saints who left their status, disciples who left their fears. Playing it safe was never the script.

At the end of our lives, we’ll want more than bullet points on a résumé. We’ll want stories.

When in doubt, live in a way worth retelling.