To understand what I am about to write you must first accept the premise that we all are living our "story" every moment of every day. I also begin with the understanding that all of history is God's story. Today's thought clarified and reinforced my understanding of "story" (that's a good thing)
During my scripture reading for the day I did something I don't normally do. (Perhaps I will begin from here on out.) I read the introduction to the books of 1 & 2 Samuel in my copy of the Message paraphrase of scripture. In it I read the following,
"The biblical way is not so much to present us with a moral code and tell us "Live up to this"; nor is it to set out a system of doctrine and say, "Think like this and you will live well." The biblical way is to tell a story and invite us, "Live into this. This is what it looks like to be human; this is what is involved in entering and maturing as human beings." We do violence to the biblical revelation when we "use" it for what we can get out of it or what we think will provide color and spice to our otherwise bland lives."
Then the sentence that started the red crayon underlining,
"In the reading, (of the Bible) as we submit our lives to what we read, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories (even though He is) but to see our stories in God's." (parenthesis mine)
God's story is bigger than any of our stories, especially mine. It is in His story's context and plot that I fit in. If all I have is MY story, not only is it bland, but it is downright depressing sometimes. But when I see that I am a supporting actor, in the story just to point to and highlight the STAR, making HIS grace and HIS love and HIS power and HIS goals more glorious, well, that makes much more sense and is much more fulfilling for me.
Thanks for wading through my rambling thoughts. (Its good to have proof that I have some every now and then) If nothing else, it has been a good reminder for me.
