“Your experiences are an opportunity to write a great story.”
I conclude many of my talks with that sentence. I think it prompts a lot of questions.
What, exactly, does that mean? Write…where? A story about…what?
Think of your life as a book. The major episodes and seasons are the chapters. So your life experiences, up to this point, are chapters already written. You can read and learn from them, but you can’t change what’s on those pages.
If you’re still breathing, however, there are chapters to be completed. The story’s not finished, and we all know the beginning of the book is just a setup for the ending. The more conflict, adversity, and pain that occur in the opening chapters, the better the setting for a great ending.
The greater the obstacle, the greater the potential for an incredible triumph.
And yes, it’s hard. Facing fear, confronting hardship, completing stories that began in pain and sorrow—those require immense courage. The women at the Home of Hope will need more courage than I can imagine to complete amazing stories for themselves and their kids. I’ll bet angels are sitting on the edge of their clouds, cheering, waiting to read what happens.
We’ve all got chapters to write, stories to complete. How will your story end?
Will the final chapters be about playing it safe or running out the clock?
Will they be about regret, wishing for a different beginning, trying to change already-existing chapters?
Will they be about shame, pretending some of those chapters aren’t really there?
God doesn’t read stories like we do. He doesn’t keep track of the mistakes and failures. He doesn’t care much about the opening parts.
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19)
What God would really like, I think, is a story that has the angels sitting on the edge of their clouds, cheering, waiting to read what happens.
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