A READING ADVENTURE
If all yesterday’s good reasons for picking up a book weren’t enough, I am learning (again!) that God speaks to me through everything I read, not just through the Bible. The day the Internet went down (August 28), I picked up a book to read, partly because I’d been meaning to, partly because it was short (I know, I know). Epic: The Story God Is Telling and the Role That Is Yours to Play by John Eldredge, is about finding our place in God’s continuing story. I loved it.
Next, I randomly picked up Changes That Heal: Four Practical Steps to a Happier, Healthier You by Henry Cloud, and read that I needed to deal with my own story (my past) in order to mature into my place in God’s story. It makes perfect sense.
While I was reading Changes, I started Rachel Held Evans’ book, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again. And was blown away by a different way to view the Bible: not as a rule book, but a love letter from the One who knows – indeed – authors my story!
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Psalm 139:16 NLT
So, God has designed a role in His Story for me, and all the sad, bad and hurtful things that have happened to and in me are part of it; indeed, those sorts of things are part of every story every written.
But those things don’t get to decide who I am: with the Holy Spirit’s help I can reform them into a narrative that fits God’s view of me, seeing my story through God’s eyes. A note in my journal (dated 11/1/95) says, “Jesus tells me, “I am not as concerned about who you were and what you did as I am about who you are and what you are becoming.”
Once I was a beggar, unworthy and alone.
Afraid to pick up scraps of bread and use them as my own.
Now I am a Princess; I still don’t own a thing.
But I have access to the treasure of my Father King.
And that is the truest part of my true story.