The Next Chapter

Transitions are unequivocally revealing when it comes to the compass of one's heart. I laugh to myself when I see the transitions that God has brought Ang and me through so far in our marriage. Things do not tend to happen gradually to us - it could be argued we do it to ourselves - but I like to think our God is trying to reveal something very important in us.
Almost 3 years ago, Ang and I got married within the same month that I started a new job, opening a new store. A year (ish) later, Ang and I discovered we were pregnant with Olivia in the same week that we closed on our house - do you see a theme beginning to emerge? This time around easily trumps those though, a month ago, I found out I was getting promoted, Ang quit her job, and we sold our house within the same weekend. The interesting thing about God is that He is always preparing people for something coming down the road. This experience has been pointed to by others before it, and it will point the way to another coming down the road. The skills and knowledge we garner from one challenge will serve us very well in the next -- one could even say the current experience may be insurmountable without the abilities drawn from the prior one. This is precisely where the laughter comes in - I mean promotion, quitting, and house sold in one weekend - what is around the corner for us?

In that sense, my sense of mystery is stoked as I think about the great journey of life. I struggle to view life in any other way than as a grand story, penned long ago - a journey that we participate in and experience as it unfolds before us. When I look at my life, I find a string of stories that when strung together form The Story, My Story. I wonder what great adventure looms ahead on the horizon, and as I said before, what God is creating in me that will be essential to experiencing that journey to the fullest.

I often fail to see the adventure in the everyday...in today. My mind opens up quite easily to the distant adventure, the one that creates hope, the one that stirs a sense of anticipation - but it never quite seems like it is time for that adventure. Instead I look to the future, yet avoid ever embracing it fully and unfortunately all too often miss the adventure in today. My world seems to lack adventure altogether. In my Americanized world, my constantly climate controlled car, where variations of a mere degree or two cause indefinite fiddling, and where I grow impatient when my laptop that connects me to people all over the globe takes more than 30 seconds to boot up - I realize I am missing something or maybe losing something.

What I gain through the virtues of advancement and technology, are a loss of adventure. My existence is one that is readily defined by control and convenience. Adventure stands in juxtaposition - the very nature of adventure is to lose control, to be at risk. I think this is why I miss the mystery inherent in my story and quietly grow numb to the role I play in this grand story - the one I forgot I was living.


It may not make sense to anyone but me, but transitions are so valuable. Transitions, the changing of chapters, create a signpost, a marker along the path we are traveling. This transition has reminded me that there is much at stake in me recalling the other signposts that have come before - to string those signposts together to see a trail taking shape. In orienteering, 3 points of reference are needed for triangulation, to determine one’s current location. So, as I string together these stories (signposts) The Story begins to take shape, the veil lifts, the fog dissipates and again I remember the Grand Story that has been written. I remember that I have a part to play and I take heart in knowing that my story is not about the struggles, its not about the challenges - it is about what theme has been created and how the Great Storyteller will expound on the themes He has written into my past and my present to create a future for me.

Read more...

Storyteller

In my last blog, I wrote about captivity and about my desire to be a part of setting people free - more specifically about how my calling fits into the greater framework of Christ's calling as found in Isaiah 58.  While still a work in progress, some things are beginning to take shape ever so slowly.  I still feel like I am walking into the fog, but occasionally a glimmer will be provided, a sight on the horizon, a quick picture of what lies ahead.  I think this is God's grace; His providence in my life, urging me forward and reminding me that great things lie ahead.

I like telling stories.  In college, my roommate Paul and I would go back and forth telling stories and entertaining ourselves and others along the way.  Stories are powerful.  Inside of a story lies truth, but that truth is packaged in a narrative which allows us to project ourselves into the story, relate with the truth found there and more readily digest truth into our lives.  Jesus used stories when describing life with God and in relating everyday life to the larger story (metanarrative) that overarches the story of humanity.  I have an inkling that storytelling may be a part of what lies ahead for me.  Not so much in the traditional sense of the word, I don't think there are any jobs out there as a storyteller, but framing truth is something I am very interested in. 

When someone shares their story something powerful happens.  The teller and the listener are somehow intrinsically connect in a new way - to tell your story is to expose yourself - to expose your innermost longings and desires.  To tell your story is to risk and where risk dwells, beauty follows closely behind.  I say this because in each of us lies a story of paramount importance - an unfolding of events Divinely authored and played out on a stage that is encompasses our lives.  Many of us don't embrace this story; instead we fight it, struggling against our reality because the miss the beauty than runs so deeply within it.

This morning I am spending some time reflecting on my story because as I look ahead and strive towards something greater, something better, something life giving I am reminded by the voice deep within that the best way to determine my path ahead is to know understand my trajectory.  That trajectory takes into effect where I have been, where I am at, and to where I am pointed.  I all too readily forget where I have come from, forget the provision of God, suffering from a sort of selective amnesia where somehow the events of my life get reinterpreted in such a way that I am left to suspect I am alone in this venture as I have been all along.  This gross misrepresentation takes place when I forget my story, when I fail to remember the times I have been rescued, the times I have been redeemed and made new and the times when I was hurting and broken and in need of simple kindness and gentle love.  I need to remember - my life and my future depends on my ability to remember what has happened - more pointedly to remember how He has happened over and over in my life, and undeniably so.  This is the overarching story we tie into, the profound and endless love of God demonstrated through Christ, revealed daily, and determined solely by His grace.

 Stories are how Jesus taught us to understand God.  Stories connect us.  Stories are powerful and everyone has one.  How will yours read?  

Read more...