The Story

Have you ever been watching a movie that you have seen before, and a certain scene comes on that you really hated? Do you find yourself turning your eyes away or momentarily changing channels because you simply don’t want to watch that particular scene? I felt that way about my life towards the end of last week. We ha a lot of challenges we were dealing with as a family.

Jon Alex’s cerebral palsy was presenting some new medical issues, extended family members were dealing with some serious stuff, and honestly, some things happening at work were discouraging me.

I was coming home at night feeling like everywhere I turned there was a wall of discouragement, problems, and situations that seemed to never end. To quote my favorite children’s book, “It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day’” and I wanted to move to Australia!

We were at an event and our photographer complained that she couldn’t get any good pictures of me because, in every one of them, I had a scowl on my face.

Pictures show us what is happening at a specific time, in a specific place, at a specific moment in our lives. But they don’t tell our story. Sometimes I forget that God has written a screenplay that started long before I came on the scene. In fact, the story of my own life isn’t even really about me.

I’m not even the main character in the story of my life. God is telling the story of his pursuit of relationship with us though Jesus. It’s ultimately a story to honor and glorify God. I just play a minor part in the story.

Something else I’ve learned. When Hollywood films a movie, they don’t shoot the scenes sequentially. In other words, the various scenes that tell the complete story are not filmed in order. They don’t make sense to anyone but the director and the writer of the screenplay until the final product is completed.

The reason I didn’t like the “scenes” of my life last week is because I don’t know how they fit into the final story of my life. In the moment that you live the scenes of your life, it is impossible to see what God is going to do with the final epic manuscript of his story.

God produces, directs, writes and casts his story. You and I just hope to play a part. The parts of my life that I find the most challenging, the most grueling, and the most despairing, may just be the moments that are setting up the most incredible parts to come in the story.

What if my biggest failure became the soundstage for God to do something epic? What if my biggest weakness or limitation allowed him his biggest opportunity to use my life for his purposes? What if my biggest struggles were the biggest moments for his glory? What if I surrendered my story to him and asked him to use my story in the telling of his greater story?

We will never understand our lives by just glancing at snapshots. Only when the entire story is told will it make sense and all the scenes will come together.

Chosen, Called, and Committed.