Your Story
What is your story?
Mostly our lives are stories we don’t get to choose. And mostly we live in the messy middle of them, trying to make sense of the plot twists that keep us on the edge of our seats. Could it be that there is a way to see it within a bigger story and gain perspective that will help us make peace with it?
Yes! The Bible says “yes”. We were made for stories, especially ones with happy endings, and the Bible is here to help us live out our own story with grace and faith and hope.
The Macro Biblical Narrative
It would be hard to overstate the power of narrative in the Bible. As a whole, the Bible is one big story that starts in a garden and ends in a city. The plot progresses and is told through series after series of substories. And, although the ending has been told and it is sure to come to pass, the story is not over yet. Amazingly, our story is currently part of a substory of the Bible!
If we look at the Bible narrative on a macro level, we could divide it up by its subplots. We start with our infinite God who creates a beginning – perfection in a garden – with nothing to dismay until sin enters the world. This is followed by stories of men like Noah, Abraham and Joseph, through whom God brings about His chosen people.
And then we are told the story of His chosen people (the Israelites): a sojourn in a foreign land, an exodus, a period of testing, a conquest, a time ruled by judges and kings, until exile and a return to the promised land. This is the content of the Old Testament. Story after story after story, with a narrative arc that repeats over and over and over.
Enter the New Testament. The life of Jesus comes to the fore: stories of friends and deeds, and victory over death with an ascension into heaven. And with that, the church is born! Detailed accounts of the Holy Spirit coming, the good news spreading, believers growing in number, and the continuing story of the church going on even as we live our own stories just now!
But there’s more! The Bible ends with the hope of victory over evil, the new heavens and the new earth, and everything returned to its former state: perfection, harmony, and joy . . . the people of God glorifying Him and enjoying Him forever. What a wonderful ending!
Commonalities
But what is common to all these stories and the one big story? Are there patterns? And if so, what can we learn from them that will help us live out our own story here on earth?
Your life is a story. God is the author. A story has different pieces; it is not completely uniform from start to finish. The stories in the Bible help to illuminate the variation that is innate to narrative, and the direction in which all our stories are headed. They help to give perspective, hope, and patience when we have trouble making sense of what is presently happening to us.
The Bible’s stories are made up of common pieces. They include combinations of promises and suffering, deliverance and waiting, obscurity and testing, yet all marked by hope. These are the things that make our stories. This is why reading through the biblical narratives can be so enlightening and helpful. They can show us where we are and where we are going, and that God, the master storyteller, has a good plan even if the story isn’t finished yet.
The Exodus Narrative
So, let’s narrow the focus to one subplot in the Bible and see how it can help us live with grace, peace, and hope. Let’s take a look at the different phases that make up the story of the Israelites on their journey from Egypt to Canaan.
The plot of the Exodus starts with suffering in Egypt: crisis, pain, desperation, and tension. This part of the story is so uncomfortable that crying out for deliverance is the natural response. This is the part of our story that we feel we just cannot bear, and we turn to God in desperation seeking deliverance from our oppression. This is the story we don’t want to live.
In the second phase, there is deliverance. The Israelites go free from Pharoah. God hears their cries and rescues them, bringing joy and relief. This is where they experience release from oppression and celebrate their newfound freedom.
But the deliverance puts them in unfamiliar territory – the wilderness. The oppression is gone, but they face new challenges. Suddenly, they find themselves wandering and wondering, as they experience test after wilderness test, and live in a somewhat bewildering transitional in-between.
And then, after quite some time, there’s something new on the horizon. It’s time to cross the Jordan – to make a choice between fear and faith. God is asking them to move on to something new: a place of provision to make their very own.
Finally, they find themselves in the promised land with work to do. It is time to fight, and tear down, and build anew. It is time to sow and reap, and establish a culture that obeys and glorifies God. It is time to enjoy the provision of God and the fulfillment of His promises.
It is not hard to see that the narrative pattern they encountered is one we encounter in our lives as well. And locating ourselves in that pattern can help us to have appropriate expectations; to live the piece we are in with grace, and to apply the truths and promises we find in the Bible as they relate to where we are and where we are going.
Relating this to Your Story
So where would you place yourself in this narrative arc presently? Are you in the middle of a particularly difficult trial? Have you just experienced deliverance from oppression? Are you wandering and wondering in a wasteland of transition? Or is God asking you to move into something new that will require some serious effort?
God spoke to the Israelites differently when they were in Egypt, in the wilderness, and in the Promised Land. Similarly, He has different words for us depending on where He finds us in our story.
Locating ourselves in the narrative pattern of the Exodus from Egypt is useful because it can help us find the relevant biblical content that applies to our particular phase, and we can then apply it appropriately in order to find comfort and encouragement, as well as insight for responding.
What is your story? Where are you in it?
