Write Your Story

I’ve always loved stories. In my middle school years I discovered what is known as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). This event takes place during the month of November, and the goal is to write a 50,000-word novel in the short span between November 1 and 11:59pm November 30. I loved the challenge this event presented and also found a thrill in creating the characters, fictional locations, spinning stories, and mapping out everything from the inciting incident, through to the final phrases that closed the story. As I have participated in this event over the years, I have invited others to join the journey with me. NaNoWriMo was the inspiration for the year-round writing class, which we called “Writers Unleashed!” which I started teaching during my years that I worked at my local library. Through this program, I had the opportunity to sit around the table with some of the most curious and creative minds that I have ever known and had the privilege of teaching. We spent many weekends over the years in a small, uninspired room with white walls, sitting around a table sharing stories, and writing together. They were all so very different, but all had a passion to write the story. 

Over the years, I watched as their stores and ideas grew. My goal with this program was to take off any boundaries, and let them be as creative as they wanted to be with their writing. I wanted to get them in the habit of dreaming big and believing in the impossible. These writers were amazing students, and now, friends. I look back fondly to those days when that small room in the back of the library became a haven for great dreams to be explored. I watch now as many of them are actively pursuing those dreams. Through the years, those fictional characters in their stories were at times, the person they wanted to be, outside of the expectations, fears, and insecurities. They wrote their story, in some elements before they lived it.

What kind of story are you writing? What kind of character would create for yourself? Would you be the hero, or one watching in the background? This week, I have been thinking a lot about those times spent writing stories, dreaming up characters, creating conflict, bringing about a resolution, and all in a clean 250 pages. If only the story of our lives were that easy. 

We don’t have so much control over the setting we find ourselves in, but we do have control over what we bring to it. 

We don’t have control over the things that may happen to us, but we do have a choice in how we respond to them.

We don’t have control over the turning of these pages, but we have a choice in how it reads.

At times I have wondered if the narrative had changed, would we still have those passages in the Bible? How would the story have changed?

What if Noah had chosen to listen to all the other voices around him instead of God and did not build the ark? 

What if Abraham did not obey God when he was called to place, leaving, even when he did not know where he was going?

What if Jochebed decided to not put Moses in a basket into the Nile? 

What if Rahab had not welcomed and hidden the spies? 

What if David chose to not face Goliath? 

What if Queen Esther at the risk of her own life did not go before the King, her husband, on behalf of her people?

There are so many other examples, but this is what they have in common - they lived by faith, and they were obedient. Because of that, we see even today the legacy that was a result of those choices. Many of these examples are mentioned in Hebrews 11, which I encourage you to read the whole chapter today, but I have a few verses that I will highlight. 

Hebrews 11:15 talks about those who lived by faith and did not get to receive the things that were promised, but they welcomed them from a distance. It says, “If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.” (NIV)

As I read this passage, when I got to this verse, I had to stop again to read it. As many times as I have been through Hebrews 11, this verse did not stand out to me so much as it did now. These heroes of the faith who persevered had their longings set on the Kingdom and the things of God and they didn’t look back. The opportunity to return to where you came from will only tempt you if you take your eyes off Jesus. They had their sights on the bigger picture.

Another verse that stood out to me is Hebrews 11:33: 

“...who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies…” Hebrews 11:33 (NIV)

What a story! And their story continues with us. It goes on to say in Hebrews 11:39-40 that, “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”

Our stories are all interwoven into a greater story than we can see. The promise is given, the baton has been passed. You are a carrier of this story, and where you set your gaze can determine in what direction this chapter will end. Set your longings on the Lord and on a heavenly Kingdom, and be a carrier of the promise that was given to those who came before you. Your story is greater than you.