Surviving Your Story

I just read this article by John Paul Jackson. I feel it is worth posting.

Surviving Your Story

Do you remember a time when you first got saved, and somebody said you were “overzealous”?

Perhaps you were, in some ways. You were a baby in your faith, and like any young person, you had to learn wisdom.

But here’s the issue: Nothing says you have to lose your dream while gaining wisdom. In a strange and twisted way, some people view having wisdom as a lack of courage, but that just isn’t true. As a brand new believer in Jesus, you dared to be great. You dared to give Him everything and not care what others thought. However, in the process of growing in wisdom, many of us lost our ability to dream of what we could be, of what we are: the hero or heroine of the story God is writing.

That is what we are called to be. A hero. A heroine. Most of us know this at the beginning of the story, but as life treads forward and we’re bogged down in the middle, in the details, it isn’t so easy to remember.

Several times in my life — that’s a conservative estimate — I have wished that my story was different. You know what I’m talking about: sitting down, burying your head in your hands and wishing that the story of your life was, perhaps, more bookish — meaning, you could flip to the end and read the last page and make sure that, at the conclusion of all things, everybody’s still alive; you succeeded in everything you wanted to do; and that for much of the story, you were happy, contented and peaceful.

Yeah. Right.

Some people are like that — last-page readers, and I am pretty sure that all of us, at some time or another, have wished to be like that. There are a few things in particular that drive us toward that end. A cross-country move. A new job. A new relationship. A fresh divorce. A divorce in progress. A layoff. A disappointment. A fear.

Actually, when have you not wanted to flip to the last page and read the ending of the book first? Maybe, if we knew what the ending was, we would have enough grace to get us through all the middle pages. Through the details. Through the hard times. “Just give me hope!” we cry to God. “I need hope.”

The best stories have the darkest trials, the most points of probable failure, the worst ways to die. But they also have the best climaxes, the greatest hope and the likeliest potential of changing the world. Great tests produce great men and women of God.

Think about Jesus’ story. Worst moment: the cross. Best moment: His bride, forever. That’s you. You are part of His climax. What if, at the darkest point of His life, He decided to give up instead of pressing through? What kind of story would that be? Great tests produce great people, kings and queens in God.

Story middles are difficult to traverse and we tend to forget what we knew with all our hearts at the beginning. When I ask people how their “story” is going, most tell me, “God’s not speaking any more! He’s not near me.”

“Are you doing what you used to be doing?” I ask.

“Well, no,” they reply. “I’m not.” And even if they say they are, you can see in their eyes that they really aren’t. In the process of growing up, we forget how to be children. Our childlike faith is left on the back burner as we get our hands dirty trying to balance all the things we feel we have to balance and keep completely under control in order to survive: family, ministry, the office, the books, everything.

But perhaps it is time to read the beginning of the story again.

In this book of life, all of us already know the ending. We live, because He made us to live. We succeed, because He succeeded. We have hope, because we are in love with Him and He takes care of us and our futures. We have this promise, all of us. No matter what happens in the middle of our stories, all of us are promised this ending!

And so, here and now, I would like to bless you in your story. Wherever you are in the book God has written for you, may you find the strength necessary to be the able, in-love hero or heroine He’s called you to be. May you find your feet exactly where they need to be, taking the exact steps He’s set for you to take. May you not be afraid, and may you not be overcome.

No matter what, in God’s story, the Boy gets the girl (Revelation 21:9); the enemy is vanquished; lives are set right; joy is found; and everything, in the end, is always more and better than we could ever ask or even imagine (Ephesians 3:20). You and I, we have this promise. So love like you used to love. Give Him time, like you used to give Him time. And dare to be great, because you were made for this.