Day 23 - Heart Story

“Whether or not we see it, we've each been invited to participate in the love story of God. We each have something to contribute. We have good works to live out, deeds prepared a long time ago in a Kingdom close at hand.”

{Jaime George, Poets and Saints}

When was it that I first realized that I was part of a plot line? It was Shakespeare who coined the term, “All the world is a stage.” I remember the passion of reading through literary texts in college ranging from Dante's Inferno to The Confidence Man as well as folklore from around the world.

My journey through literature had brought me along vast terrains. Yet despite the diversity of landscapes, I couldn't help but find a thread of the gospel story weaved throughout cultures, traditions, and worldviews.

I had a professor for a course called Advanced Elements of Argument, who constantly challenged the Christian perspective as we had read through various works. Boldly I returned the challenge, daring him to find the spiritual meta-narrative within the texts. How often one finds it there, between the lines, man's confession of his need for God—no man is set apart from the search for truth and revelation of the divine—not even the atheist.

In everything I have read, I visualize it is as if a large canvas or a tapestry is laid out showing how the God story is interwoven through every narrative. Just as you can see yourself within the pages of a fantastic work of fiction, I began to see myself as a player in the love story of my God.

I realized that I was a character alongside the saints of old; and it changed my perspective on the events of my life. The setting of my terrain appeared to be intentional, planned even, as if a narrator had penciled me in. The conflicts of my story line developed with deeper meaning. The climactic elements, when I found myself treading upon rocky cliffs, gave birth to hope that the story has a purposeful and even prosperous resolution.

Do you know that God's story for you began long before you were born? Since His creation of the first man and woman, God had the most wonderful plan for his children to dwell with him, to live in relationship with him.

The Bible says that God created you in Christ Jesus to do good works—to live your poema—He planned them for you long ago (Eph 2:10). For He who has begun a good work in you will see it through to completion on the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6). He is the author and finisher of your faith (Heb 12:2).

Maybe you feel, because of the chapter you are in (or the one you just came out of), that your story is too much of a mess. But if you have received Christ in your heart then He has already written the rest of your story. God wrote the perfect resolution to the conflict of humanity: Jesus Christ. He has a plan for your story line; everyday is written in His book (Ps 139:16). He's just waiting for you to jump right in.

Will you say yes to God today? Invite Him into your story and watch new miracles unfold.

Revive My Heart - Write 31 Days