What story?

For a long time, I thought life was about me. We’ve all been there.

But I realized that didn’t make sense. It isn’t very fulfilling to attempt to make the world around me — and it didn’t work!

So for a while, I thought life was about serving a great cause. I wholeheartedly pursued the dreams of idealistic organizations.

But then I realized that I sought a great cause because of… me. Instead of success, I wanted significance.

Now I’ve realized that there’s a bigger story. The bigger story isn’t about success or significance. The bigger story is about God - and what God is doing.

Instead of starting from the bottom-up — what my heart wants or what we want — I humbled myself to recognize the story began before we arrived on the scene.

To enter this story is to recognize the primacy of the Storyteller. To go before the beginning of the beginning. To adore the eternal, Triune God of love who existed in perfect glory before the start of time.

This God started our story with his initiative to create.

This God engaged our story after we hilariously attempted to create our own, separate stories.

This God pursues us within our stories and invites us to participate in his story.

In grace, God is writing us into his story and one day we will fulfill our roles with purpose and joy.

From the vantage point of my story, God’s story can seem like a threatening re-write. But once we are within his narrative, our own stories find a paradoxical fulfillment.

What story are you living in?

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I love this. Sometimes I get so caught up in fulfilling my “calling” that I end up sliding into making it about me without even realizing it. It can be really sneaky, because a person doesn’t necessarily start off that way. Because I am so goal-oriented and have such determination when it comes to certain things, I can end up being me-oriented :).

I have a birthday coming up soon, and I have found that I have not enjoyed my birthdays for the past few years. In fact, I dread them. I think recently, I realized that I don’t get any joy out of celebrating myself, haha. I get more joy out of moving in the direction of celebrating God and the fact that He has even included me in His story for His purposes. However, I still somehow struggle between living God’s story and trying to live my own. I think we have to be extremely intentional and make sure to question ourselves and ask God to examine our hearts and reveal to us any wrong way within us. I don’t believe that battle will go away until we see Jesus face to face and are changed in an instant, so we will always need to be alert, and it’s important to never think we’ve “arrived,” at least in this earthly life.

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