Make Them Wish It Were True

This Summer I have had the joy of walking a group through the study "The Story" on Sunday nights during EQUiP.

The basic premise of the study is helping to understand that the Bible is portraying a greater story (metanarrative) and narrows the focus of the Bible down to four concepts: Creation, Fall, Rescue, and Restoration. As we work through the study, we are learning how to tell the story of the Bible, learn how the story of the Bible relates to our lives, and learning how to relate each of those elements to how we explain the Gospel to others.

Ultimately, like many stories we watch on television, or read in books, the Bible has a beginning, a climax, and ending, a protaganist, and antagonist, etc.

One week utilized an illustration presented by Tim Keller discussing the Peter Wimsey mystery novels written by Dorothy Sayers. In her popular novels, about halfway through writing the novels, a woman shows up that was a writer of mystery novels...and the woman falls in love with Peter. Sayers looked at her creation, her character Peter needed someone to help him out, was eccentric, unhappy....and needed something to go in to his life to really fill out his life. So she put a character that mirrored herself to fix her character. As Keller states, "So who did she put in there? A detective novelist, a woman, one of the first women to go through Oxford. Who was that? She put herself in there. She looked in to her own world that she had created and she fell in love with the chief character and she wrote herself in and healed him. Isn't that nice? How sweet. Except guess what? God creates the world, and we've turned away from Him. And we are screwing up our lives royally and we are unhappy and God looks into this world and He loves us and He writes Himself in. Only He really writes Himself in, in Jesus Christ and He takes us and He heals us and He takes us to be His bride."

What a beautiful story. If we genuinely believe what we profess in Christianity, how could we not be so excited to share it with the world in a way that would make them wish it were true! We are a story telling culture, and everyone loves to hear a great story, and everyone loves to tell a great story. I encourage you to take time in your day to listen to the story of those around you, and also reflect on how well you are familiar with the story of the Gospel and where you fit in to God's Story. Not as the main character, but yet in an important role where we get to be a vessel God uses to proclaim His Glory!