Some time ago I picked up Dan Allender’s book about the importance of story, To Be Told: God Invites You to Coauthor Your Future. I was definitely intrigued and then attempted to take the essence of the Allender’s work and apply it to my life. Here are a few thoughts that got me started. Perhaps this will be helpful to you, especially as 2012 comes to a close and you reflect on your 2012 life story.
According to Allender, “Everyone has a story. Put another way, everyone’s life is a story.” Most people don’t know how to read their life in a way that reveals their story. They miss the deeper meaning in their life, and they have little sense of how God has written their story to reveal himself and his own story.
So what does your life reveal?
- God is not merely the Creator of our life. He is the author of our life. He writes each life story to reveal his divine story. God writes the story of my life, your life to make something known about Himself. Our life story reveals who we are and who God is.
- Neither your life nor mine is a series of random scenes that pile up like shoes in a closet. Your story has unique characters, surprising plot twists, central themes, tension and suspense, and deep significance. God asks me to take the only life I will have and ever be given and shape it in the direction he outlines for me.
- The most important thing about my story is not a moral lesson but the Lord.
- God is not concerned that we build ministries–or companies, families, or any other human legacy–to his glory. His glory is grown when we simply live out the calling he has given us. We give him much greater glory when we are aware of our calling, live intentionally, and live with passion.