My Story: Choosing to Start

We all have stories to tell. Some stories we are proud of but there are others stories we would like to forget or at least remove a few details. We all love a good stories and last week we looked at the very beginning of God’s story, the Bible in and I invited you to listen to God’s story as if it was the introduction to a Star Wars movie or as if you were gathered around a campfire listening to a great storyteller. After all, that was how it was probably shared in it’s original form with people of all ages squirming and listening or simply enjoying an evening together. Asking questions or for more details to help them imagine and clarify their understanding of the story.

I also explained that God’s story is our story too. We are the characters who get to participate and develop God’s story. The plot and all the twists and turns of our life and the choices we make become a part of God’s grand epic series. Some of them are are recorded in the most influential book every written. A book we call the Bible. It’s a story that isn’t finished yet. It has a beginning and we know some of the loose details of how the story will end but it isn’t finished yet. Through free will we each get to be active participants in developing and helping God writing this story. Every character the decisions they make, the places they go and the people they encounter has am impact on the ultimate direction the story will go. Because God created us with free will we too get to do some steering of the story but in the end, God has the freedom to write the ending God desires.

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The Decisions we make matter.

The decisions we make matter because they shape the course of our story. My decisions have the potential to influence the shape of your life and the decisions of your life have the potential to shape mine. We are bound together in this eternal book of God’s word.

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Would you please stand and join me in reading our Scripture passage for today? It comes from .

The New Revised Standard Version The Example of Jesus

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

In 1986, I was a college student at Texas A&M University. I had chosen this school because it was a good school, it was a friendly campus, I had been there for other events. I didn’t like Texas Tech which was in my hometown but my parents wanted me to stay in the state and my mother didn’t like University of Texas because it was in a big city. Like any parent they had concerns as fears for my life......so we agreed upon Texas A&M.

I had never really struggled nor excelled in school. However, I had also had ever really applied myself either. I didn’t have a discipline of study because school had been relatively easy for me. However, that changed during college. As a culmination of my poor study skills and personal habits. I made my first D and had to retake Accounting 101. So to meet the requirements of my degree plan I enrolled in the class again the following Spring.

I can remember having prayerful discussions with God on the way to class. In my mind somehow God had a role to play in my own failure my inablility thrive in this class. I was angry, frustrated and afraid that I might fail again. In fact, the very last words I remember saying to God as I walk to the first day of that retake being “God, there had better be a good reason for this!” The events and my decision to retake that class changed the course of my life forever. No, I didn’t become an Accounting wiz but I did met my husband of 30 years in the retake of that class. The choices big or small have the potential to shape our whole life. Truthfully, what may seem like a small decision can be the biggest decision of our life because we never know how God might use it to shape our character and our life’s story.

I received my flunked my first class, Accounting 101. I needed to pass that class so I chose to take the class again the coming Spring. I can remember having prayerful discussions with God during that time. It is funny because I remember being angry with God because of my own failure; as if God had made me fail my Accounting class. In fact, the very last words I remember saying to God as I walk to the first day of that retake being “God, there had better be a good reason for this.” The events and my decision to retake that class changed the course of my life forever because I met my husband of 30 years in the retake of that class. No, I am not an accounting wiz and I will never be one.

The decisions we make matter not only to us but to God as well. We are the characters who were created to shape and reveal God’s eternal story. God’s story has a beginning, plots or key events which must happen to lead the story to the fulfillment of the Authors ultimate ending and a variety of settings in which these must take place.

Image of Three Legged Stool Here

The strength of the overall story rests upon three legs like a stool (characters, plot, and setting) which support the weight of the whole story. If any of these legs are too short, the stool will wobble and probably tip over. If any leg, is too weak or thin, a leg might break under the weight of the whole story.

We don’t start this story with out the Primary Author of this epic first establishing who we are as well because the key aspects of our own character, the Author’s intentions and the starting point for our overall character development begins here as well. In order to know where we are going, where we have been and discern the Authors will for our lives. We have to have an accurate picture of who we are. We have to know and be attuned to God’s word. We have to know God’s plan for us and our role in helping the Author achieve the completion of the grand story.

One thing to note is that no character remains the same from beginning to end. The story each character lives will lead toward growth, change, expand and potentially transform into something different and new. Do you know what I mean? Children grow up and become adults. Adults have families and children of their own. I have a phrase, that I often use to ground myself in reality. It is this, “The day I was born, I began to die.” It reminds me that every beginning will have an ending.

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tells us there is a Season and Time for everything. This is what it says...

The New Revised Standard Version Everything Has Its Time

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

The author of Ecclesiastes recognizes that seasons and time, are the signature of the artists handiwork. The result of God’s creative order, light separated from darkness, water from land, setting lights in the dome of the sky..... so that they might be signs and a source of light to the earth; so that as we revolve around a Sun a greater light our days and years would have a sense of time and season.

When we understand this setting. I helps us to understand ourselves as characters in that story. Whenever God gives a new season of life. We have an opportunity to grow, learn new things that we might not learn otherwise or experience something new or in a new way. Being born is not the same as giving birth.

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Change is Inevitable!

Change is Inevitable! Each stage has a new perspective, and it is normal to not immediately understand new things. Yet, change comes as time changes. We must go through these seasons but just because a rough season arrives doesn’t mean that God is finished with you. Just because things become difficult or challenging does it mean you are cursed or abandoned.

If we continue in our these of the Bible being God’s grand epic story. We can then understand ourselves as characters in that story. Whenever God gives a new season of life. We have an opportunity to learn things that we might not learn otherwise. It is normal to not immediately understand why we must go through these seasons but just because a rough season arrives doesn’t mean that God is finished with you; nor does it mean you are cursed or abandoned. Seasons come and seasons go nothing is forever. Change is inevitable and every new season brings new challenges. These season bring seasons of growth, seasons of joy and abundance, seasons of humility and disappointment as well as seasons of waiting, weakness and death. God allows our hopes and dreams to die oftentimes so that new hopes and dreams that are more inline with God’s plan can be planted and grown.

Seasons come and seasons go! Nothing stays the same forever. Change is inevitable and every new season brings new challenges. There will be seasons of growth, seasons of joy and abundance, seasons of humility and disappointment as well as seasons of waiting, weakness and death.

In all these seasons, plants, nurtures, plans and harvests the fruits of our hopes and dreams. God may even allow our hopes and dreams to die. We don’t always know why but I think sometimes it is so that new hopes and dreams can be planted with in us that are more inline with God’s hopes and dreams. Sometimes our free will leads us away from God’s story.

There is a quote that comes from a Tina Hallis book which really seems to capture what I mean by this. She writes:

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“Sometimes it feels like life has buried us in the dirt, when in reality we’ve been planted with an opportunity to grow.”

When life throws us a curve ball!

When changes come our way!

When we we are overwhelmed, overwhelmed, fatigued, exhausted and/or afraid!

When your best laid plans fall apart!

How do you react?!

Do you throw a pity party?

Do you quit or make thing seem worse than they really are in reality?

Maybe it is easier to quit rather than take responsibility or face the potential of criticism.

Or maybe! Maybe you blame others for the failure?

Yeah, I know! I know what people do because I’ve been there! I am guilty of doing the same things.

This is what we do when we believe we are the author of our own story. Which is only a half truth because we are not alone in writing this story!

Here is the truth! If you are discouraged or if you have ever been discouraged you are not alone. Discouragement is something we all experience at one time or another. Is a normal and common experience to loose our passion, vision or confidence for a season of life. Some of us have really long seasons of discouragement.

For example, God called Abraham to go on a journey. He doesn’t know the destination but he goes because God plants a hope for the future in his heart. A promise that God would bless him, use him to make a great nation, children and land. God shows him the land of promise but the funny thing is Abraham still has to struggle. Abraham still makes poor decisions and he still fails to trust God’s plan. He denies Sarai is his wife turns her over Pharaoh, brings suffering to Pharaohs household and years later at the ages of ninety nine the family promised to him through Sarai has yet to see the fruit of one child. Neither Sarai nor Abraham can see any hope of the promise being fulfilled. I don’t know about you but I think that sounds like discouragement to me! In fact, Abraham and Sarah had given up on the promise. We know this because when they are told they will have a child in their ripe old age, they both laugh in the very presence of God.

But God is faithful, God keeps his promises and may even call us out so that we can take ownership of our own stuff our own story. He does that to Sarah by askingAbraham while Sarah is listening “Why does Sarah laugh?’. God wants us to take ownership of our story and the plans the Author has for our story. He wants us to turn the page and help in leading our story to the end of the final chapter of this grand narrative. So, I ask you this!

What might God be inviting you to do?

What does God want you to want?

Has there been a seed planted in your heart that you are neglecting? Is it a hope for the future?

What is it? What is the Holy Spirit stirring up in your heart and mind as I ask you these questions?

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What you start today, might change your future story.

If you don’t know the answer to these questions right away, chances are you have buried the seed and left it for dead when God intended it to take root and grow. Maybe it is time to remember that seed and water it. Maybe it is time to turn the page on your story!

I would suggest turning the page of your story might mean taking up a new practice. If you are struggling in an area of your life, turning the page might mean intentionally choosing to change the way you life your life. To take intentional steps, which will help you turn the page. Turning the page might mean making the priorities of your life line up with the story God wants you to tell?

Is it overcoming insecurity? a bad habit?

Is it an addiction? Or maybe it has to do with healing a relationship with someone? Maybe that someone is you. Do you need to be forgiven? Do you need to forgive?

I suggest that a good place to start is to take up the discipline of invitation both accepting invitations and offering invitations. You are invited to know God’s story and tell God’s story. Invite someone to read and pray with you. It is usually easier to make big changes when we have the support and encouragement of other making the journey with us.

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I don’t know what you need to start, but you do. What story does God want you to tell? Do you want to live a story worth telling? Or one day do you want to be embarrassed by this chapter of your life? The decision you make today will determine the story you tell tomorrow. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith. He will help you author the right story. You CAN live a story worth telling.