Living in God's Story

There are many great books out about passionately living the Christian journey, which is filled with danger and risk, or life on the edge as some call it. Lately, I've heard many heartfelt pleas from preachers to live a full life that serves God as we give ourselves away to others in need and through authentic community. There can be so much richness and joy to being in full surrender in Christ, but there is also a lot of pain and struggle in this life. We hear God's voice calling out to us in many ways, but we also try to suppress it and pretend that it does not exist. We become inspired on Sunday morning at church, and then all seems lost by Monday morning. Back to the grind. We wonder, why does life have to be so hard? And so we settle. We make agreements with the little things of this world that bring us temporary joy, or sometimes additional pain as the consequences of our sins. Instead of living life on the edge, in a dangerous, risky battle for the redemption of billions of people living on this planet, we play it safe and flip on the TV to watch other people living out their own pretend adventures in front of the camera. Or we seek cheap thrills. So, why does all of this happen?

God calls the adventure of following Christ in this life the narrow path. Few will find it. The narrow path is a lifelong journey with many twists and turns and ups and downs. We often settle for living out what other people's expectations are for us instead of perhaps what God has planned for us. John Eldredge writes, "Without a deep and burning desire of our own, we will be ruled by the desires of others... The damage, of course, is a life lost unto itself. Millions of souls drifting through life, without an inner compass to give them direction. They take their cues from others and live out scripts from someone else's life. It's a high price to pay. Too high." - The Journey of Desire

The stories that other people come up with for us, to try to define us, are too small for us to live in. The stories that the world generates for us, the latest tech gadget or concert or TV show or fad, are too small for us to live in. We must learn to not allow the world to provide meaning to our journey. Sometimes other people will contribute to making our journey more meaningful, but we should not be defined by the expectations of others. This is life! We have so much to live for! We can only find the narrow path to life by living full out for Christ, embracing risk as the central theme to making sense of things this life has to offer. God wants to meet us in that place, but we must give up control in order to connect with God. This life is not about the human story. This life is about God's Story!