Light is knowing the story is never over

I think one of our greatest weaknesses is how quickly we come to believe the story is over. When I look back at the dark moments in my life, there's one thing they have in common. The feeling that this is it. The story is over.

In fact, I'm wondering as I write this morning if maybe that's what darkness is - the feeling that the story is over. Maybe it's not so much the circumstances in our life that bring darkness - but the feeling of hopelessness that lives in those circumstances.

When I look at my own life, and I consider any wisdom I might have, it's mostly found in discovering and coming to believe the story is never over. Now, it's deeper than that, at least for me. Because to truly come to believe the story is never over, I've had to come to grips with the reality that I'm not living my story. I'm just a beautifully flawed character in someone else's story.

When I look back at all the "this is it" moments I've felt in my own story, I can now see with every one of them God was writing a "once upon a time."

I'm reading a book right now: "Grace from the Rubble" by Jeanne Bishop. It's the story of Bud Welch and Bill McVeigh.

Bill McVeigh is Timothy McVeigh's father - the young man who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City 20 years ago. The bombing killed 168 people. Bud Welch is Julie Welch's father. A young woman who died in that building when the bomb went off.

The story is about the beautiful friendship that's developed between the father of a killer and the father who lost his child at the hands of that killer. Everything about the stories both of these men lived the day that bomb went off are filled with "this is it" moments.

But in the bigger story, it was simply once upon a time.

I would imagine as a country, it's been a long time since we've had so many people all at one time feeling like the story is over. I would also imagine, some people will find little encouragement hearing there's a candle of hope burning in the background just waiting to tell us the rest of the story.

I would simply encourage you to look back on your life - surely you have moments when you thought the story was over - and it turned out that it wasn't. Yes, but those stories weren't as over as this feels, you'll say. And all I can say is, to me, at the time, they all felt as big as this.

I would also encourage you to step outside of your story into a bigger story. Nothing reminds us more the story isn't over than stepping into a story that never ends. Nothing says the story isn't over more than the man living in the story of losing his daughter to a killer, knocking on the front door of the father of that killer just needing to tell him "we're good."

I've discovered that my stories, they always seem to be weaving me to a place where they want me to believe "this is it."

But God's stories, I've found, they are always holding me and whispering to me - "this story has only begun." They are always a candle burning in the darkness, so anxious to tell me the rest of the story.