The On Going Big Story
This life is a tale of two stories – one small and frail, the other eternal and enduring. The tiny one – the story of us, our story – is as brief as the blink of an eye. Yet somehow our infatuation with our own little story – and our determination to make it as big as we possibly can – blinds us to the massive God story that is going on all around us, that surrounds us on every side.We so easily become engrossed in our story, our living, our life, and making it a best seller, that we often completely ignore the big story of God’s plan and purpose that is happening everyday around us, without us seeming to even notice.Missing the bigger picture is a little like a story I read.
The author was shocked some weeks ago by the reaction of two New York City’s finest as they motioned him over to their squad cars in the middle of his mid morning run. The officer’s opening line, which could not be printed in the Christian book he was writing, led to this inexcusable reply by the author.“What does it look like I’m doing?”He quickly realized he had said the wrong thing, especially to a New York cop. In a heartbeat his hands were on the hood of the officer’s car and threats of arrest were flying all over the place. The writer was startled and unnerved, and though it was now too late, his mouth was now shut. Unless asked, he wasn’t saying another word, especially a sarcastic one. To make matters worse all he could produce in the way of identification was a hotel key card – one of those fancy new ones that looks cool but doesn’t even contain the name and address of the hotel. The whole scene was going down-hill fast.How did his live get to that place? Things had started off innocently enough that morning as he headed out the door of his midtown Manhattan hotel and began plodding down the sidewalk towards the East River, about eight blocks away. But before he was two or three blocks away it started to rain. First, it was just annoying – an intermittent spitting kind of rain. Then the wind picked up and a steady, chilling downpour started making things miserable. Assessing the situation, he determined he was too far from the hotel to make turning back a sensible option, so he kelp running north along the river, pressing on in the driving rain.His running style was not one that causes him to admire the scenery but one of survival. He was running in a cold down pore and he could barely think at all. This causes his biggest mistake; he didn’t pay any attention to the road signs. Thus he wasn’t paying much attention when suddenly his path was blocked by a chain-link fence. It stretched from the riverbank on his right, to a concrete lane divider that he had been running along on his left. Again, retracing his steps did not make any sense. What made sense was getting out of the rain. He saw an overpass across the way so, without thinking, he hopped over the lane divider and ran for the shelter. The over pass turned into an elevated roadway, so he could keep running under cover. As he continued on, he never really noticed the lane to his right at some point turned into two lanes, then the two turned into three. After another mile or so all three lanes of traffic were moving slower than he was running and a driver in one of the cars shouted something in his direction. But the rain, the traffic, he couldn’t make out what she said and he was trying to ignore her any way. Then the overpass drifted away and once again he was exposed to the rain.Soon he noticed the lower level of the United Nations buildings on his far left and nearer and just ahead two police cars parked on a wide concrete median. A single officer in each car, their eyes meeting his as each step drew him closer to their car. Everything seemed fine until one of them “blurp” his siren and intently motioned his hand for the runner to come over to their car.It was at that moment the author realized for the first time he was running down the middle of the FRD, a six lane expressway that snakes along the eastside shoreline of Manhattan. No wonder the officer’s first question when he finally splashed to a stop was so unprintable.
How can anyone run down the middle of a New York freeway and not know it? I think in the same way you can live your entire life completely oblivious to the grand story of the Creator of the universe, that is unfolding every minute of every day all around you.
The same way we can spend our days, one after another, making much of someone as small and transient as you and me, and so little of someone as glorious and eternal as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
It’s past time you and I realized that there has been a great story going on long before we arrived on the planet and one that will go on long after we are gone. God is the central character of this story. The scripture tells us that no matter how in charge we tend to think we are, God does everything according to His own will and purpose. He commands the center stage in existence, Creation, time, history, redemption and eternity. He is in charge here!I’m not trying to put you down or make you think you do not matter. Nor am I saying that you are absent from the grand Story of God. In fact it’s just the opposite. You appear on every page of your days, existing in God’s thoughts and plans long before you were made. I simply want you to understand something today, the story has a Star already and the Start of the story is not you or I.
Here is why it matters – if we don’t get the two stories straight, everything else in our lives will be out of sync. We will spend our days trying to hijack the Story of God, turning it into a story about us, our lives, our plans. We will end up living everyday as if life is all about us. We will live as though life is a one act play and history is our story, Creation is our habitation alone, existence our playground and God our servant, (that is if we decide we need Him at all).We will throw every ounce of our energy into the fragmented and fleeting story of us. Calling our own shots and me-centered thinking will dictate every move we make and how we feel.
Could it be you are running through life, trying to catch your breath, defeat the on slot of the storm and never even pausing to realize you are running through the greatest ongoing story called the plan of God that has ever been.The promises of God’s story are huge. The blessings and ordered steps of God’s story are all compassing and engulfing. This thing is greater, much larger than our little story. There is more going on in the plan of God than has ever been planned in our life. We tend to simply just run through the lanes dodging the traffic, wondering when the rain is going to stop and why are there so many cars. Why is there so much strain and stress? When all the time, while all we can see is our little story, there is a big story going on that God planned on you being part of if you will just wake up and look around you and realize where you are running.I want you to be aware of a six-lane-wide-freeway-sized God story and plan that you are running down the middle of every day. It is a place that requires a constant everyday choice that you will be part of the right story. We can choose to cling to starring roles in the little-bitty stories of us, or we can exchange our fleeting moment in the spotlight for a supporting role in the eternally beautiful epic that is the Big Story of God and His purpose.
The thoughts and story line was taken form the book, I Am Not But I Know I Am by Louie Giglio
