With the summer movie season coming up and the big budgeted blockbusters right around the corner I could not help but think of our story or better yet, your story.
Part of any good story is what one is seeking to accomplish. This is usually what drives the story. Frodo wants/needs to destroy the ring. Luke Skywalker is seeking to defeat Darth Vader by destroying the Death Star before it can become operational. In The Princess Bride, Wesley is overcoming ‘inconceivable’ odds to reclaim his lost love, Buttercup. The bigger, more compelling the goal, the greater the story. And yet it seems to me that we have our stories hijacked on a regular basis by things both trivial and mundane, inconsequential and nonessential. Which toothpaste should I buy? Should I get a newer, larger, better TV (or phone, lawnmower, kitchen appliance, etc.)? Americans encounter over 3,000 commercial messages every day, telling us what we should want and/or accomplish. It’s no wonder we get distracted!
And yet, if we want our lives to tell a story, if we want that movie poster to be compelling enough to draw someone into the theater of our lives, we are going to have to want noble and compelling things. Things like good defeating evil (“Overcome evil with good,” Romans 12:21), peace where there now is strife (“Pursue peace,” Romans 14:19, 1 Peter 3:11), justice and kindness blooming in deserts of despair (Micah 6:8). In short, to seek the Kingdom of God, coming on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:33), in ways both little (think standing up for the marginalized) and large (think Mother Teresa, or even Frodo), can be as compelling a story as there ever was.
So what’s your story? Can you say no to the (literally!) thousands of little stories that wash over you every day, in order to say YES to a greater story, one wrapped up in God’s Kingdom coming in your life and the lives of those around you? Why, yes. Yes, you can. By God’s Grace, through the power of God’s Holy Spirit at work in you and in our world your story can and should be greater than any high budgeted movie that is coming soon.
God Bless,
Pastor Tim
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