Jan 23rd | Missional Storytellers
We all have stories. Stories that threaten to sum up our lives. We have a story of strength or challenge: the successful CEO and the cancer patient. We have a family and a financial story…of independence and of unemployment. We have hobbies that reflect our passions and favorite TV stories that capture our imagination. We have a religious story or a non-religion story. Jesus loved stories. he would often start his sermons with, “The kingdom of God is like a…” and He would paint a beautiful picture with words. Whether you are happily married, single or divorced; rich or poor; health or sick yo not only have a story, but God is telling a story with your life.
What we too often forget is that the story God is telling is His story. And He’s not just “telling” it, its happening right now. You’re in it and it’s happening all around us. Since the beginning of time and recorded all through the Bible we see God’s grand narrative: Creation, Fall, Israel, Jesus, Church, and New Creation. We have the great and unique privilege to exist during the Jesus-Church-New Creation chapters. We live in the Now…the Kingdom…a sliver of Heaven delivered in Jesus, carried on through the church and sustained by the Spirit. But we also live in the Not-Yet…Heaven not fully arrived.
God has specifically and uniquely created and called every human to be forgiven in Jesus, to join His story, to live out His story and to draw others into The Story. God is up to something magnificent and He invites us to be a vibrant part of His wonderful purposes (Php 2:13-14). He doesn’t call you to end your story and to embrace His, but rather to subject our stories to His.
When our story is viewed and lived as a sub-story to the Great-story, then life really begins. Once we realize and embrace the fact that we are/were created with a purpose in mind for God’s sake (Eph 2:10-13).
As a church, Vista aspires to be on mission for God, to be missional in character and purpose. And we realize that, in large part, to be missional is to have our individual and unique stories caught up in God’s cosmic story. To be missional is to allow our story to be a part of the telling of God’s story. We are to be storytellers. Tellers of God’s story, not necessarily with words, but with our very lives – lives of worship, glory and thanks to God…and lives of love, Jesus-like sacrificial lives…
When our story is the sum total of our life we lose our way, becoming purposeless and vain. But when our story becomes part of God’s story we find purpose and direction, life and liberty, love and mercy. When life revolves around our story we become dizzy and disoriented. But when life revolves around Jesus we find wisdom and significance.
Let God’s story overshadow your life. Let God tell His story with yours. Be missional!
What’s your favorite story, book, or movie?
What are the dominant themes or stories of your life?
What of your life does or could draw others to God’s story?
What of someone else’s life in the room draws you to Christ or builds your faith?
