I’m a story person. I love a good story. Growing up, I escaped into novels, and I believed that there was no story arc that didn’t come to a satisfying conclusion. The satisfying conclusion, of course, meant that the heroine, who essentially lived a good and virtuous life — even if she’d taken a detour or two — was happy. Most people think in narrative. We write stories in our heads. We engage in dialogue with ourselves. In so many meaningful ways, we are the protagonists of our own stories.
As we gain experience with the trials of life, the dialogue might become more negative. We say things to ourselves that are defeating or self-deprecating or discouraging. Or all of the above. We lose the plot of the story where we are the hero; instead, we wake up to another day of resigning ourselves to being at the mercy of fate. Or worse, we write ourselves into the role of the victim and persuade ourselves that this is all there is. We’ve always been the underdog, always felt the sting of defeat. The habit of telling this story becomes so ingrained in our brains that we don’t even recognize that we are the authors, that we hold the pen.
But we are.
And we can edit. We can write a whole new narrative. And we certainly can have a say in the way the arc plays out. There are lots of things that are not under our control. The story we write in our own heads is not one of them. Our thoughts truly determine our lives; we have to take every thought captive (2 Cor 10:5).
God did not create you to play the victim in your own story. He created you for triumph. He created you for glory. His glory. And so, it is incumbent upon you to do some editing if the story you’re telling yourself is anything but glorious.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2).
God’s will for you is perfect for you. God’s will for you is love.
No matter your state of life or your current job or your marital status or the disposition of the dreams you dreamed when you believed in fairytale endings, God has a plan for your good. He created you to love and to be loved. Write that into your story.
Cooperate with your Creator to make something new. Make it something that reflects his love. Every day offers you the opportunity to be the hero in your story. No good story is without conflict and tribulation. What does the hero do with the challenge? How does the hero call on the power of the Holy Spirit to meet hard things with grace and dignity?
You are the author of your narrative. Does the story you tell yourself every day about who you are and who you are becoming reflect the real story God planted in your heart? Or is it playing a tiresome sad tale that you’ve fallen into believing is true?
It’s a good time to see if the story you’re telling yourself needs to be edited. And you are just the person to make the edits and change the direction.
Foss, whose website is takeupandread.org, writes from Connecticut.
