Seriously, God is awesome… I’ve dwelled on what Donald Miller wrote in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years:
“And as I worked on the novel, as my character did what he wanted and ruined my story, it reminded me of life in certain ways. I mean as I sat there in my office feeling like God making my worlds, and as my characters fought to have their way, their senseless, selfish way of nonstory, I could identify with them. I fought with my ecoterrorist who wanted the boring life of self-indulgence, and yet I was also that character, fighting God and I could see God sitting at his computer, staring blankly at his screen as I asked him to write in some money and some sex and some comfort.”
Two out of the past three days I have just asked God to be the story teller in my life and for me to be the character. I found myself asking the Storyteller “do I really have to?” or “meh… that sounds good but can I do this?” When I would remind myself that I’m supposed to be being written, not trying to grab the pen, something wild, fun, and unexpected would happen. It would completely ruin the schedule of the day that I had in my head but I would still somehow get done everything that needed to get done.
The first day I had a bunch of errands to get done but I started the day by praying and asking God to be my storyteller for the day. To take control from me and make his will be done in my life for that day. I then started to organize them in my head into a concise, orderly, efficient plan… Step one was to meet with a professor then check my mail and go do a couple more things. When I got to the office no one was there. So I went to the SUB and checked my mail. I saw some of my high school students helping with an event at the pool with a bunch of elementary school kids. What I got for being nice and saying hi was eventually being drenched and chased around by about a dozen kids looking to soak me further and—a wild, fun, and unexpected story. God took the wheel, got his will done, and gave me the gift of granting mine to be done as well.
The third day I prayed a similar prayer in the morning “God, let me be submissive to your will and be my storyteller. Prepare my heart and make it like yours so I may be able to seek your will, find it, and follow it.” At the end of that day I was going to go with my roommate to return a borrowed keyboard to the campus tech guy. But when we opened the door of the apartment we quickly closed it and went to grab umbrellas and rain coats to prepare for the downpour that was sweeping through Kissimmee. It was mild on the way to the tech guy compared to the maelstrom we encountered as we began to leave. The campus was literally flooding and yet again a plan that was perfect was deemed to change. After I walked/swam back to our apartment, rather than feeling annoyed with being wet, I felt immensely relaxed and then overcome inexplicable joy. I think God finally saw that I was beginning to figure it out that he was the writer and I the character and smiled… I removed all my keys, wallet, phone, etc. and explored new rivers forming on the Campus of FCC without raincoat, shoes, inhibition, and selfish desire. I came back to the room drenched once again and with a sense of peace and an overflow of joy.
Being a character in God’s metanarative is a place of peace. But I know, by the way of Don Miller, that story also involves character change and a plot arc. The thing about an arc is that it isn’t flat—this sounds elementary but it’s crucial. There is elevation, challenge, obstacles, and change. The protagonist is the character that changes the most or most dramatically throughout the story. There is also an antagonist—the character that forces the change of the protagonist and usually places the most obstacles.
You’re probably wondering what happened on the second day. Enter the antagonist. I wanted to be my own writer that day… I had played God’s pawn for a day. It was fun, but I was not interested in relinquishing my “perfect” schedule for that day. I had a list of about four or five things to do that day and I finished them in about 20 minutes. With nothing else to do I decided to just take it easy. I rented a movie from iTunes, played some Goldeneye, and surfed on the waves of facebook. With boredom and stagnation your guard begins to drop and the antagonist sees “an opportune time” to throw an obstacle on the plot arc that I decided not to walk that day. The thing about deciding not to take part in the story is that—you really don’t have a choice; you’re in the story no matter what. When you choose not to participate you choose not to practice before the game, you choose not to put your cleats on, and you choose not to get your head in the game that you have to play no matter what. That day I completely fell over the obstacle placed on my path because I denied that I was even on the path.
You have a choice to make. It’s not a choice whether to participate in being a character in God’s story or not. It’s whether or not you acknowledge you’re on the page, the arc, the story. It’s whether or not you acknowledge that you’re a protagonist and by that very definition you are going to change and that there’s an antagonist that’s going to make you change. That antagonist is going to put obstacles on your path and force you to move, jump, or fall. This antagonist wants you to fall, wants you to deny that he even exists and that life’s pains, hurts, problems are the cause of a brutal unloving God who doesn’t care. When, in reality, they are opportunities to grow and make the story that much richer. James 1:2-4 says: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
The best part about these challenges is that you are guaranteed to be able to overcome them. Not guaranteed to overcome them, but guaranteed to be able to overcome them. First Corinthians 10:13 says “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.” You can get through whatever barrier is placed in your path. God knows you, inside and out, and knows what you can handle. Why would he ultimately make you fail by letting you be tempted beyond what you can bear? That doesn’t make sense…
In the surrounding verses Paul says “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!... he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” That’s what happened to me on day two. I thought I was standing firm. But it’s like standing firm on a beach with the waves washing the sand out from under your feet and when the tide comes in the under-toe pulls you out. The second part of that means that God also lets you take a path around the temptation if you don’t want to battle through it… How awesome and merciful is that! Seriously, God is awesome…
You’re a character in a story. Are you going to participate or are you going to deny the very existence of the story and ultimately fall?
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