What's Your Story?
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.—Ps. 139:16
Which movie genre best describes the trajectory of your life?
Do you see yourself in a comedy, where everything that can go wrong does, but you can laugh about it?
Do you see yourself in a drama where everything is high stakes—stressful and somber?
Do you see yourself in a horror film, plagued by demons and death at every turn?
Or do you see yourself in an epic adventure, where battles are fought, and even if the hero dies, good ultimately wins at the end?
While this may seem like a good icebreaker question, I have found that my answer to it does make a big difference in how I live.
Does it make a difference in yours?
The Importance of a Solid Storyline
The beginning of a movie sets the stage as we are dropped into a world not our own.
Who is the main character? His sidekick? His enemy?
What’s life like? What is the good, the bad, and the ugly?
And most importantly: What’s the problem? What are they working against? What will need to be resolved in order for the story to have a satisfying ending? What question must be answered?
We too are dropped into a story. As we read God’s Word, we will see that there are themes. And these themes help us to make sense of all the individual events, conversations, and decisions in a story. The unfolding plot—and the growing awareness of it prompts each future move.
The nature of the story reflects the vision of the director. So an important question to consider is:
Who’s Writing Your Story?
The world tells us that we can write our own story—that we are the director of our destinies.
But that presumes you know the best ending and the best possible way to get there—and the truth is, we simply don’t.
God has a story He is telling. It is a story of righting the world of all the wrong. It’s about healing a broken world and broken people.
Not only is He doing this in the grand scheme of things, He manages every person within that story. There are no minor players or characters. Everyone is important.
When we think about it this way, there is only really One who can write this story.
It takes faith to put our lives into the hands of the great Storyteller. It takes faith to trust that what has been going on is the truth. It takes faith to trust that He will get to the end destination, despite the turns and twists it takes.
Who’s writing your story?
Living By the Story
N. T. Wright says, “Tell someone to do something and you change their life—for a day; tell someone a story and you change their life.” If he is right, then far more important than a laundry list of ways to live the Christian life is a sense of where we fit into God’s Story.
For me, 1) knowing there is a Story, and 2) knowing I am not the author of it, has greatly shaped how I live.
For starters, it has changed my personal ambitions.
Realizing God’s story is what changed my direction from medical school to ministry.
Through a summer missions trip to the (then) Portuguese colony of Macau, I caught a whiff of the story He was writing.
Once I caught on to it, everything changed for me. God’s Story changed my ambitions—I began to want something different. It affected my educational plans, how I spent my summers, and eventually, who I married.
It also changed my priorities.
Growing up in this era of history, the message that women can do what men can do has rung loud in my ears. I always assumed that I would be working outside the home.
But as I got married and had children, I began to feel a dissonance.
Through the wise counsel of our pastor from the pulpit, I began to see that yes, God wanted me to make disciples, but those disciples were not just “out there.” They were right before me, in the little people that looked to me every day!
So, though it was hard, I stepped down from the ministry position I loved to spend time with the children God gave me.
Lastly, it began to change my identity.
I confess that coming home to be “just a mom” didn’t really come smoothly. Though I was convinced that this was the right thing to do, it wasn’t without its struggles.
I was plagued with questions: Who am I? What am I doing here? No one sees me. And most importantly to me, no one appreciated what I did every day!
It was then that I realized how much I had tied my identity to what I did. God’s Story was critical in my life at this stage because it gave me a greater sense of purpose.
My greatest privilege and responsibility is to multiply more disciples—not just out there, but those that I see every day in my home. For what good would it be if I spent my life serving the Lord and my own children remain lost to Him? I didn’t want them to witness me serving others but seeing something else at home.
Realizing that God sees me and knows my heart has given me great hope in a season where it is easy to feel anonymous and unimportant. And when I am secure in His view of me, I become more secure in who I am.
Living Today in the Story
Now, over 30 years since my first step of faith into His Story, I can say that there is nowhere else I’d rather be.
It is what helps me to interpret the everyday hardships of raising a child with disabilities.
It is what guides me as my husband and I begin our new ministry together.
It is what gives me contentment that following HIm won’t make me rich in this world but rich in the next.
I can persevere with endurance when life gets hard. I can trust when life gets scary. I can hope when life gets difficult.
While I may not know all the details of my life here on this earth, I know where God’s Story is going. I know where it’s ending.
So even if I don’t know all the details, I can line up my days towards that end and trust that He will get me there. His Story filters into my thoughts, which impacts my interpretation of life, the choices I make, and my perspective. It does change everything about how I live.
My friend, if you are in Christ, this is your Story too.
How will it make a difference in how you live today?
