Life Is A Story

John Eldredge, in his book, Epic, tells us that life is a story. God is telling a story and you have a crucial role to play. Do you know what kind of tale you were born into? Do you know the story? Do you understand your role in the story? Life will never make sense until you do!

In Epic, Eldredge writes:

“ Notice that all great stories pretty much follow the same story line. Things were once good, then something awful happened, and now a great battle must be fought or a journey taken. At just the right moment (which feels like the last possible moment), a hero comes and sets things right., and life is found again.

It’s true of every fairy tale, every myth, every Western, every epic—- just about every story you can think of, one way or another. Braveheart, Titanic, the Star Wars series, Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings trilogy. They pretty much all follow the same story line.

Have you ever wondered why?

Every story, great and small, shares the same essential structure because every story we tell borrows its power from a Larger Story, a Story woven into the fabric of our being- what pioneer psychologist Carl Jung tried to explain as archetype, or what his more recent popularizer Joseph Campbell called myth.

All of these stories borrow from the Story. From Reality. We hear echoes of it through our lives. Some secret written on our hearts. A great battle to fight, and someone to fight for us. An adventure, something that requires everything we have, something to be shared with those we love and need.”

There is a Story we just can’t seem to escape. There is a Story written on the human heart. As Ecclesiastes has it, “He has planted eternity in the human heart.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT) I would invite you to begin an adventure by seeking to know and understand the Story that we are in. The Story is found in the Bible. It is the Story God is telling. And until you grasp that there is a larger Story and that you were born into this Story with a purpose, you will never be clear on why you are here.

Therefore, I strongly urge you to begin reading the Story revealed on the pages of the scriptures found in the Old and New Testaments. A really good place to start discovering the Story God is telling is in the Gospel According to John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made: without him nothing was made that has been made.” - John 1:1-3

Your homework: Read together the Gospel of John and the book, Epic, by John Eldredge. I am confident it will help you understand the tale you feel like you have fallen into and the Story that God is telling. I pray you will also discover your purpose in the Story and the vital role you have to play!

Blessings

THE VIEWS OF SUBMITTED EDITORIALS MAY NOT BE THE EXPRESS VIEWS OF THE ALABAMA GAZETTE.