I Am Not the Leading Character in My Life

Cumberland Falls - 8:30 a.m.

I finished reading Ruth and started into 1 Samuel. Very noteworthy insight from Eugene Peterson's introduction from The Message. God's Spirit is speaking to me loudly and boldly. Peterson says, "...the stories [Samuel, Hannah, Saul, David] are clustered around 1000 BC" and 800 years after Abraham. Just put that in context. These stories about the lives of these people, about whose details relate so much to me, and God, occurred 3000 years ago--where we can't even begin to know how different [culture, environment, etc.] they believed and experienced. And yet, they are like me. God has not changed. Man has not changed. Relevance is real and pertinent.

Peterson also says, "...our ego-bound experience is too small a context in which to understand and experience what it means to believe in God and follow his ways." Everything I see, feel, perceive, make judgments about, plan, value, drive me forward or not, is based on me and my experience. Peterson is saying that if that is all I know, I cannot know God and his character [Believe!] and follow his ways [or even know his ways]. I am so small and limiting. I am so ego-bound, the center of my small mind and life.

God is not defined or bound by me, even though I think he is! I think I am the center of everything. Even when I think I am "nothing," I become the center of life and God! God draws me out of myself to show me that I am just a pin dot [not even] in God and the history of man, and I must look at the whole to understand. And yet, I am the most important person to him as well. That I cannot comprehend. God does not belong to me!

Peterson also says, "...[these] stories do not show us how we should live but how in fact we do live...the reality of our daily experience as the stuff that God uses to work out his purposes of salvation in us and in the world." I am part of this. My life [feelings, perceptions, judgments, plans, values, things that drive me forward or not, relationships, etc.] is part of the present and future for somebody or somebodies. God uses these for his purposes, the good and the bad for now and future generations.

Then he says, "...perceptions of ourselves...cannot be reduced to personal feelings or ideas or circumstances. If we want a life other than mere biology, we must deal with God. There is no alternate way." So God, life is larger than ME, my personal feelings, ideas, circumstances? Put that into perspective!

He goes on, "...we don't have to fit into prefabricated moral or mental or religious boxes [in fact I fight and rebel against them] before we are admitted into the company of God--we are taken seriously just as we are and given a place in his story, for it is, after all, his story, none of us is the leading character in the story of life."

I am not the leading character in my life, God is! How humbling and exciting at the same time. If I could just remember this in the fabric of my daily life. So deep that it is just like breathing. I just do it, or not even I do it, it just happens. I don't have to think about it or make a choice to do it. It just happens and goes on and on moment by moment, stretching into years and decades, a whole life. Without it, I die! It sustains life, my life physically, mentally and spiritually. God is the leading character in my life.

"...the biblical way is not so much to present us with a moral code and tell us 'Live up to this,' nor is it to set out a system of doctrine and say, 'Think like this' and you will live well. The biblical way is to tell a story and invite us to 'Live into this.' This is what it looks like to be human, this is what is involved in entering and maturing as human beings." (Peterson)

It is a rich experience filled with passion, ups and downs, growth, relating, understanding God and me in God and wonder and awe of God, world, mankind, universe, God's world, God! The details of my life experienced through God! I am human. He made me this way. It is a blessing to be human, the crown of God's creation! That is me! He is pleased with me! I have to live up to His pleasure, and through Jesus Christ I can!

Lastly, Peterson says, "...We are not being led to see God in our[my] stories but to see our stories in God's. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories [my story] find themselves." And do I have a story! The story of my life in all its pain and joy, mistakes and successes, weaknesses and strengths, growth and stagnation, my humanness! It fits into the story of God! Jesus is the bridge that links me directly to you, Father. "How great is [my] God! Sing with me how great is [my] God. All will see how great, how great is my God!"