Our Story Isn't Ours

We're all a part of a metanarrative that is unfolding before us, and has been unfolding since the creation of the world. It's the story of humanity. Every person - past, present, and future - has a role in how the story plays out. The author of this story, as with most stories, knows the end from the beginning, but the story itself is dynamic, shaped by the decisions the characters make, shaped by us. Though able to control every aspect of the story, the author gives the characters their own volition, and thus, the ability to influence the plot.


It's easy for us to lose our place as a character in the story. Sometimes, we think that the story is our story. That life is about us. It's so easy to make life about us. In a self-centered world, it only makes sense that the whole of the story would center around us. And we begin to believe that. We begin to believe that we are the main character of our story, and it leaves us indigent.

When we're the main characters of our stories, our world is small. We can only see a very small portion of what is real, true, and beautiful. We cut ourselves off from having a life that is full of meaning and wholeness, choosing instead to live a jejune life. By choosing to be the most important character in our story, we lose ourselves. We become empty people living empty lives in an empty world.

The truth is that the author of the story is the main character. Not only do we find His imprint on every character in this story, but He has inserted himself into the story and made himself the centerpiece of human history. He is the amalgamator of the narratives of our separate lives, bringing them together to create the metanarrative of which we're all a part.

It is only when we acknowledge who the main character is and that our role in the story is nugatory, that we find ourselves. We quit living for ourselves, and allow the author to take control. Our world becomes much bigger, much better, when we are inset in the context of the overarching story. Our ephemeral lives become infused with meaning, beauty, joy, love, and life itself. We learn that every good and perfect gift is not what we attain by our selfish exertions for what we want, but from the author of life. In light of the glory, power, and love of our Author, let us abjure from ever impudently situating ourselves as the main character of our lives.