Epic
At Cross Points Church this month, we’re having an emphasis on small groups, so I’m hosting a group of about 15 people in our home. Sunday afternoon was our first meeting.
We are discussing a book by John Eldredge (most famous for his book, Wild at Heart) called Epic: the Story God is Telling. This is book bio on Amazon:
Life, for most of us, feels like a movie we’ve arrived to forty minutes late.
Sure, good things happen, sometimes beautiful things. But tragic things happen too. What does it mean? We find ourselves in the middle of a story that is sometimes wonderful, sometimes awful, usually a confusing mixture of both, and we haven’t a clue how to make sense of it all. No wonder we keep losing heart.
We need to know the rest of the story.
For when we were born, we were born into the midst of a great story begun before the dawn of time. A story of adventure, of risk and loss, heroism . . . and betrayal. A story where good is warring against evil, danger lurks around every corner, and glorious deeds wait to be done. Think of all those stories you’ve ever loved—there’s a reason they stirred your heart. They’ve been trying to tell you about the true Epic ever since you were young.
There is a larger story And you have a crucial role to play.
Epic has a vital message we need to hear. If you allow it to, it will speak to your heart. On top of that, it’s easy to read (about 100 pages long) and super cheap ($2.99 on Amazon – link above).
We all have a story to tell.
In our group, as we went over the first chapter, we began in small part to tell our stories. We are telling our stories because everyone has a story to tell. After the meeting, I began to think about this idea more, and this question hit me,
What is the story I’m telling?
That’s a big idea, so let me re-phrase it:
Am I telling a story of life or death?
No matter how wonderful or how tragic your story, it can be told positively or negatively. Are you telling a story of life (positive) or death (negative)?
Be a life person.
We all know people whose story is constantly death. Even when their story is beautiful, it’s spoken with a negative tone. For these types of people, nothing is good enough.
On the other hand, we all know people who have nothing but a story of life. No matter how bad their news, it’s told in a positive way. They truly believe the best is right around the corner.
Some people are just born this way. My daughter is a life person by nature. Everything she talks about has a twinge of positive in it. She’s the life of the party. Everyone wants to be her friend, because everything is awesome!
For others (by nature, this is my category), it’s a choice. I have to choose to believe God is working the best in all situations…no matter how dark things look.
Why? I choose a story of life.
We all get this choice. We all can choose to tell a story of life, even in the midst of dark times. It’s not glossing over reality or ignoring the truth. It’s believing all things work together for the good.
So as you tell you story this week, remember it’s not the story that determines life or death…it’s the storyteller.
Tell a story of life.
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