Fitting Into THE Story

Last night I began reading Darrell’s (aka Whisky Prajer) book "Youthful Desires.” It’s been a long time since I’ve read any fiction, and about as long since I’ve read anything not directly related to doing my job. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but it seemed no longer had I opened the book - all of a sudden I was on page 99. Somehow I had been so pulled into Darrell’s stories that I ‘forgot myself.’ (btw – nice book, WP. Though it does come with a PG rating).

Anyway… Story. This is not an original concept with me, and probably with no one ‘cept the original Creator. I think too many people (and maybe all of us at one time or another) feel that life is a story about US. But the reality is… we are all a part of a larger story. We are not the main characters, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a valuable part to play. Life is God's story... and we get to be in it! The sooner we realize that, the more our life, and life in general, will make sense.

You know how some people can be. If they don’t get enough attention, or they don’t get their way, or things go bad for them… they can do some downright mean and stupid things. And isn’t a lot of it because we think it’s supposed to be ‘all about us’? But what if we got so caught up in God's story that we 'forgot ourselves'? I think that's where the real joy of living comes from.

This morning I read Ephesians 2 from Eugene Peterson’s ‘The Message.’ Here’s the first 10 verses or so…

It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in the highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus [is that a great thought or what?]. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he had gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

Yeah; Amen and all that. It kind of takes the pressure off, doesn’t it? It’s not our story… it’s just our job to come along for the ride. So let’s get riding, eh.

Peace, friends.