This post is a postscript to Finding Your Own Story.
Stories are the only enchantment possible for when we begin to see our suffering as a story, we are saved.
-A. Nin
diary 1943
I used to think life was a type of contest. Through tests of will, perseverance, serving God and resisting worldliness we carve out a path and in the end…well, when we meet God in the afterlife, it’s pass or fail.
When my life crashed, the contest concept didn’t hold up. I needed a much larger story. No, I required a much larger story—in order to desire to live.
I didn’t know it, but I needed a love story: God pursuing me and showing me He loved me.
It took time, conflict, evil, beauty, hair-raising wins, sorrowful losses and exquisite rescues for me to see God as my trustworthy hero.
I live in this love story. Now.
The true story of every person in this world is not the story you see, the external story. The true story of each person is the journey of his or her heart.
-Curtis & Eldredge
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The best story I’ve ever read or listened to is the story of the Biblical character Joseph. His journey of the heart is sad, maddening, and wonderful. His lesson: “What you intended for evil, God intended for good,” makes living our stories so worth it. See Genesis 37-50.
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photo credit: ellenm1 (creative commons)
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@gloriabethrose
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