Quotes about Story

The essence of Christian faith has come to us in story form, the story of a God who will go to any lengths to get his family back. The Bible tells of flawed people -- people just like me -- who make shockingly bad choices and yet still find themselves pursued by God. As they receive grace and forgiveness, naturally they want to give it to others, and a thread of hope and transformation weaves its way throughout the Bible's accounts.

Jesus' story makes no economic sense, and that was his intent. He was giving us a parable about grace, which cannot be calculated like a day's wages. Grace is not about finishing last or first; it is about not counting.

The essence of Christian faith has come to us in story form, the story of a God who will go to any lengths to get his family back.

As a Southerner, coming of age for me included a dawning awareness that we were living with a story that was self-deceiving, a lie. The resulting tension planted something deep in my soul, a nagging sense of betrayal.

It is important to tell your story. It is equally important not to get trapped in your story. It is not what happened to us that matters but how what happened hurt us.

As you have learned through my own story, it is real people just doing their best to follow Jesus who end up making the biggest impact on the world.

Joseph understood that the overall purpose of his life was to fit into a small part of God's larger plan for the world. Joseph understood that his life's purpose was bigger than simply playing out his own dream, even a God-given dream. He knew he was on earth to be part of God's story. This was a game changer for Joseph, and it can be a game changer for us too.

The story is never just about you and me; it's always about God's glory and his work on planet Earth. We need to grasp this: it's not all about me and my issues and my deliverance. It's about God's purposes in the world. He needs to get me involved in his plan because I'm connected to a bunch of other people and their involvement with his plan.

What's great now is that I know that Jesus trumps our desires. Jesus opens up a story for us that fulfills (and exceeds) our heart's desire if we delight in him. Jesus doesn't cram us into preset molds; he molds us for God-birthed purposes.

We can either choose to cling to starring roles in the little-bitty stories of us or opt to exchange our fleeting moment in the spotlight for a supporting role in the eternally beautiful epic that is the Story of God. I

Abandoning the tiny story of me and embracing the forever Story of Jesus will allow our little lives to be filled with the wonder of God as we live for the unending applause of His name. And joining our small stories to His will give us what we all want most in life, anyway: the assurance that our brief moments on earth will count for something in a Story that never ends.

ways. Most often, the trials we are walking through today are preparing us for a greater role in God's unfolding story.