The deepest convictions of our heart are formed by stories and reside
there in the images and emotions of story. … Life is not a list of
propositions, it is a series of dramatic scenes. … Story is the language of the
heart. (p. 38 & 39)
For hundreds of years, our culture has been losing its story. …all we
have left is our small stories. … The central belief of our times is that there
is no story, nothing hangs together, all we have are bits and pieces, the
random days of our lives. Tragedy still
brings us to tears and heroism still lifts our hearts, but there is no context
for any of it. Life is just a sequence
of images and emotions without rhyme or reason.
So what are we left to do? Create
our own story line to bring some meaning to our experiences. Our heart is made to live in a larger story;
having lost that we do the best we can by developing our own smaller dramas.
(p. 40 & 41)
These two quotes are from Brent Curtis & John Eldredge’s
book The Sacred Romance, a book I have been reading since October and
have mentioned previously on this blog.
As someone who has always loved to read, these passages (among others)
caught my attention. How often have I
been moved by the story in certain novels, plays, and even films? How often do I read a certain book or watch a
certain movie because I need a good cry?
How strange is it that my list of favorite movies includes “chick
flicks” and war movies? In these words
from Curtis & Eldredge, I begin to see and come to a new understanding of
myself. All that emotion, all that
relating to certain characters, all that longing to have the same adventure—it
all comes from a desire to be part of a bigger story, to be part of something
that goes beyond the tiny bubble of my own experience.
Apparently, this is a concept God has decided to hammer into
my brain. I’ve also been reading Looking
for God in Harry Potter by John Granger. [Note: I highly recommend this
book to everyone regardless of whether or not you’ve read the Harry Potter
books. Granger’s insights are incredible.] Granger says, “I am convinced that the
fundamental reason for the astonishing popularity of the Harry Potter novels is
their ability to meet a spiritual longing for some experience of the truths of
life, love, and death taught by Christianity but denied by a secular
culture. Human beings are design for
Christ, whether they know it or not. That the Harry Potter stories “sing along”
with the Great Story of Christ is a significant key to understanding their
compelling richness.” (p. 2) Here I
find some understanding for why I was moved to tears, to anger, to exaltation
(and much more) while reading the 7th (and final) Harry Potter book
earlier this year. My heart longs to be
part of a larger story; the Harry Potter stories allow me to fulfill that
longing (if only momentarily).
So where does that leave me?
Well, fortunately I’ve been reading a third book: Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. Bell
also mentions the concept of story. In
one chapter, he mentions that our “faith is a communal experience. A shared journey. …the point of our stories
and our faith journeys is that they are about something much bigger.” (p.
90) As humans, we are part of a bigger
story; as Christians, we have the ability to know and acknowledge that
truth. Our faith brings us into contact
with the Author of this story, and we can begin to see the bigger picture. But this is ultimately a matter of
choice. Bell says later, “God is retelling each of
our stories in Jesus. All of the bad
parts and the ugly parts and the parts we want to pretend never happened are
redeemed. … Our choice becomes this: We can trust his retelling of the story,
or we can trust our own telling of the story.” (p. 146) We have the option of living in reality, of living
in the bigger story that God is telling rather than our pitiful attempts at
story-telling. When I choose to live
that way, my life takes on a deeper meaning and purpose; I find greater worth
in what the Author of my story says about me than what I could ever find in my
own telling. When I choose to live that
way, I’m living in truth—a truth that sets me free to be who I really am, who I
am becoming as God works in me.
Which story do you want to live in?
