Freedom and Our Story

This week’s post took an unexpected turn on me.  Since the week contained the 4^th of July holiday, a patriotic theme seemed appropriate.  I had written a little over 300 words on the idea of “liberty and justice for all” but it just wasn’t flowing.  That is not the norm.  Most weeks, once I get started, it is like turning on a spigot and it just runs all over the place.  This week, not so much.

To be honest, my life has been complicated this week by other people’s choices.   Demands on my limited time, financial, mental, and emotional resources have resulted in a bit of a personal funk.  Besides that, man it’s hot!  I feel like I am melting and running all over the place.

Last week I wrote about how everyone has a story and that it is important to realize that God is writing your story.  I’m still thinking about that reality.  I’m also thinking this week about freedom.  So, I thought I’d make use of the heat, throw both the ideas in the same pot to simmer, and see what rambling thoughts we can pour out.

My feeble brain can semi-process—and even embrace—the idea that God is writing my story.  By “writing” I don’t mean that God has programmed all the choices out of my life.  I mean that He is not just out there somewhere.  He’s involved.  He has a plan.  He’s inviting me to join Him on this incredible journey called life.  Because I know that He is writing my story, I can also affirm that He is writing your story.  What I think we sometimes miss is that He is writing OUR story.  

A few years ago, I ready John Bunyan’s wonderful allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress.  Maybe you’ve read it, too.  If not, I encourage you to check it out.  Some of the highlights of the story are the different characters Christian meets on his journey from his hometown (The City of Destruction) to The Celestial City (Heaven).  He was on his own journey.  It was his own story.  But each person he encountered impacted his journey and vice versa.

Here’s my own “aha moment”.  Every intersection of my story and your story impacts OUR story.  It gives a whole new meaning to words like “indivisible” and “liberty and justice for all” from the words of our pledge.  It gives new meaning to “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” from the words engraved on a plaque inside our Lady Liberty.

God has blessed us with the freedom to be WE.  As our story is being written, He gives us the option of being set free from the failures of our past.  The end of the story is not determined by what has already been.  It is still being written.  That’s why I can say with confidence that our lives (and stories) matter.

Thanks for letting me tag along.