This is not my story, you are

​When we are in the middle of a story, especially a story we would rather not be in, it's easy to feel like this is a forever story. It's easy to believe this is when and where and how our story ends.

But that story you're in - that story is never the end.

It's the nature of the world. On any given day it weaves hundreds and maybe even thousands of narratives into our lives. Some of them are very real. Some of them are narratives others proclaim about us. Even more are the narratives we proclaim about ourselves.

Some days the noise of the stories we are trying to balance and make sense of is an unbearable din.

That's when it would be nice to have just one story. Just one story line to cling to and follow out of the noise into peace and hope and joy.

There is such a story.

I've had the new Maverick City/Kirk Franklin song on repeat lately: 'Fear Is Not My Future.' Part of the chorus says this:

Fear is not my future, you are.
Sickness is not my story, you are.
Heartbreak's not my home, you are.
Death is not the end, you are.

Hello peace, hello joy, hello love, hello strength, hello hope, it's a new horizon.

I think one of evil's greatest weapons isn't hardship. It's actually how it uses hardship to hide God from us. Evil knows if it can get us lost in the struggles of own stories, we will easily lose sight of the hope that is always found in God's story.

It's always important to recognize that Evil and God both have a common purpose. They both want our love and devotion and admiration.

The difference is, Evil wants us to believe the story is over and so what's the point. God wants us to believe the story is far from over, and there is no point, but there is an eternity full of purpose.

Purpose to his love for us. Purpose for our love for one another. Purpose for even our hardest stories.

The purpose is believing in New Horizons. Believing that even in the darkest of hours there is always a New Horizon coming. That is faith, trusting in New Horizons.

I have faced plenty of darkest hours in my own life. But not one of them has yet to be the end of the story. They have all come with a New Horizon. And so I have faith.

Fear is not my future, you are.
Sickness is not my story, you are.
Heartbreak's not my home, you are.
Death is not the end, you are.

I encourage you today, if you are in the middle of a hard story, or if you are in the middle of the din of a thousand stories that make no sense, find a quiet place.

Sit.

Close your eyes and whisper.

This is not my story.

You are.