There’s a popular Christian song, sung by Katy Nichol and Big Daddy Weave, called God is in this Story. The lyrics rejoice that God is part of the story of the singers’ lives. But it always makes me a little sad when I hear that song on the radio because, although it’s certainly true that God is in the story of my life, that perspective completely misses the point. The mind-blowing reality of Christ is not simply that he’s become part of my story, but that he brings me, just as he brings you, into his story.
In Ephesians 1:8-10 we read:
With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment – to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
Did you catch that? God’s purpose is, “to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” God did not save me and adopt me as his son for my benefit alone, but as part of larger plan to bring all of creation into submission to Christ. That’s his story.
Another Scripture says:
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
Again, it’s just not about just you or me. There’s something much bigger and much more glorious going on here, but I can only see it if I take my eyes off of myself. Everything God has brought me through, everything he’s taught me, has been for my benefit, but none of it was only for my benefit. God redeemed you and he redeemed me, so that you and I could be part of his plan to redeem the whole world. We are part of his story. And that story is vastly more important than our own lives.
That’s the perspective I want to keep; that my life in Christ is only one part of something much bigger than my life. That it’s not my story that gets me excited, but his story. Remember who you are. Who we are. We’re sons and we’re daughters of God. Let’s look past ourselves and start getting excited about our Father’s story, and his kingdom. To quote another song lyric, “Did you exchange a walk-on part in the war, for a leading role in a cage?” May I never be more interested in what God is doing for me than in what he is using me to do. May I never be more concerned with my story than I am with his.