Story

I have read so much about story lately.

And I like it all.  Mostly.

I remember reading a quote by Eudora Welty and she said, “Most really good stories are about the interiors of our lives.” (I think she’s right – which is how that woman who seldom left her own state and who rarely even left her hometown could still write Pulitzer Prize winning novels.)

With all this talk about story, and being a person suffering from tunnel vision, I naturally turned my thoughts on myself.

I thought about story in general and my story specifically.

And I thought  . . .

What if you are in the middle of your own life, your own story, and you don’t like it?

You don’t like your story.

It isn’t funny enough.

It’s too sad.

Too emotional.

Too painful.

Too boring.

Too . . . everything except what you want it to be.

What do you do then?

What can you do?

It’s already your story.

And just when I have most been lamenting my own story

a very wise friend

reminded me of something.

She said, (actually, full disclosure and all – she wrote) . . .

This is not “your story.”  This hasn’t been “your story” since the egg and sperm united and made you!  This is God’s story.  And He will write its beginning and ending.  That being said, don’t close the book in the middle!!  Remember that God is in the process of redeeming, of rewriting, of making the best twist in the story.

Oh.

That’s right.

I am not the author.

I’m not even the main character.

This isn’t actually a story about me.

How did I ever begin to believe the lie that it was?