Nobody really remembers easy stories [where characters do not face much conflict. But in good stories,] characters have to face their greatest fears with courage. That's what makes a story good. If you think about the stories you like most, they probably have lots of conflict. There is probably death at stake, inner death or actual death. . . . These polar charges, these happy and sad things in life, are like colors God uses to draw the world. 

I was watching the news the other night, and they were still covering that story in Mumbai about the terrorists who went on a shooting rampage. . . . I kept imagining [the victims], just living their daily lives, and then having them suddenly ended in unjust tragedy. When we watch the news, we grieve all of this, but when we go to the movies, we want more of it. Somehow we realize that great stories are told in conflict, but we are unwilling to embrace the potential greatness of the story we are actually in. We think God is unjust, rather than a master storyteller.

Don Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, pp. 31-32