Our Story
By Shauna Leis
“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.”
Acts 20:22-24
Have you ever noticed that you have to read the whole story to understand what is actually happening in the story? The characters tend to build on each other throughout the length of the book. If you were to skip to the end of the story, you would know what happened, but you would not understand a lot about why the ending happened the way that it did, especially if it was a surprise ending.
My children inherited some very old story books from my childhood. Needless to say, those are some very well worn books and are starting to seriously fall apart. One of them has lost the cover – front and back – and many of the first and last pages are missing from the book. So, we typically pick up Sleeping Beauty at about the part where the three good fairies are taking the baby Aurora out into the countryside to hide her from the evil Malefiscent. Now, thankfully we know the story very well from watching the movie, but if you did not know the story, you would have a hard time figuring out why the good fairies had to sneak the baby out to the forest. Because the missing pages contain the part which explains that Malefiscent placed a curse on the baby that she will surely die before her seventeenth birthday by pricking her finger on a spinning wheel.
My Bible, thankfully, is also very well worn, and many of my pages are falling out as well. The entire back section from James through Revelation is loose and just sitting in the cover. Also, when Nathan was a baby, he was looking through the pages and tore out a page that contained 1 Corinthians 6-8. Every time I am in a worship service and the speaker references those chapters, I cringe because I cannot follow along in my own Bible.
So, what does this mean for all of us? Well, our lives are also a grand story. And if we were to try to leave out a chapter in our lives because we are ashamed of it or wish that it never happened, other people who are following along with our stories will not understand how or why we have gotten to where we are. Our past, as difficult as it may be to face, is how it all began and must be told to complete the book. Our present is the middle and where we live from day to day. And the future holds the end of the story, where we will eventually get to over time.
In 1 Corinthians 10:11-13 Paul records for us, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” Paul was referring to the history of Israel in the earlier verses of this chapter and what they had experienced throughout the ages. They had seen many miracles of God and had experienced extreme discipline as well. However, good and bad were all recorded for us in the chapters of the Bible so we would be able to read their stories and hopefully not go down the same path that they traveled.
We all have a story to tell. God designed us the way we are for a reason and has allowed us to go along our chosen path to enable us to tell our story with passion. We cannot leave chapters out along the way because they are too painful to remember or we are ashamed of the path that we went down. Someone needs to hear your story because of something that is going on in her life right now. She needs to know that there is hope to get through it with God’s help. Will you be willing to put aside your fear of what others might thing about you and tell your story? Will you be a testimony for God and how He has been faithful to you through the years, in good times and bad?
We need to know that each day is writing the completion of the story. Each day that closes becomes a past chapter, and each day ahead of us is a chapter waiting to be written. Are you living your life focused on how the end of your story is going to be written? When I get to heaven, oh how I pray that I have been faithful to God until the very end, and my chapters will in some way shape another’s life to believe that God is the God of all and worthy of all honor and all praise!
Pray with me: Dear God, oh, how we long to tell our stories of Your faithfulness throughout the years. Our stories were meant to be shared, from the beginning to the end. Help us to be strong to even share the chapters that cause us pain for some reason. God, maybe we have lost someone dear to us, and thinking about those memories brings up so much pain. Or maybe we have had relationships that we are not proud of that cause us shame. Or there have even been times that we have greatly strayed from the path You have laid before us.
From now until the end of our story, God, we want to be faithful to You and live a life that testifies to Your work in us. God, we love You so very much and pray all of this in the precious name of Your Son, Jesus Christ! Amen!