Stories End (II TIm 3:14-17)

Doesn't everybody love a story? I used to love story time at school. The one time out of the day where my imagination could roam wherever it wanted to....and I wouldn't get in trouble. Stories with drama, suspense, a bad guy and good guy, a princess, a dragon, a sword. I still love stories today but now instead of listening to the story I am usually the one reading it to my kids. Josie loves books and without fail at least once a day she asks me to read her a story. She brings one of her little pink princess books, climbs up on my lap and stares at me with her big blue eyes. It is hard to believe that sometimes I turn her down, but for the most part I open it up and begin the story. After the setting is laid out, the characters are introduced, the plot is defined and thickened, the conflict begins, the climax happens, and the results are exposed something so predictable happens. No matter if it is a book, a movie, a comedy, a drama, or even a dreaded chick-flick romance, all have one thing in common.............they end. Every story is the same because they all culminate towards those famous words, THE END. You know, all of us have a story and everybody loves a story. But, is that all a believer has.......a story? Are our experiences, our conflicts our victories the only thing we have to hold on to in this world. Are the eternal lives of our families, friends, neighbors and classmates based on our ability to tell our story? Should the foundation of our lives just be our experiences, the things we have touched, tasted, heard?

I was reminded this morning that though our experiences and our stories are of extreme value, there is something that we are part of that is much bigger. You see before the story of our lives began to unravel there was the everlasting Word. (John 1) That Word was written out thousands of years ago to Israel and that Word was lived out in flesh two thousand years ago. His Story followed in the written Word of the Gospels. His story continued in the Acts of the first century Church. His story was lived out in the life and letters of Paul, James and John. What I love about His Story is that there is no ending, for the teller of the story is Eternal. He is not subjected to the constraints of time, or pages. He is telling the story even as we speak. His Word is Alive! It is not history that can be studied and forgotten, it is HiStory that is forevermore. May we today base our lives on the Word that is able to give us a wisdom that leads to salvation. May His followers be equipped with more than experiences and feelings that end, but with a Word that teaches, rebukes, corrects and trains!

-Take some time to read II TIm 3:14-17 and journal your thoughts.

Prayer

Father, teach me to love your Word. Lord we cannot lead from feelings or experiences but from your eternal everlasting, redefining and restoring Word.