The Great Story

"The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house..." Isaiah 7:17

I completely understand what Switchfoot meant when they sang, "Last week saw me living for nothing but deadlines, with my deadbeat sky..." As finals roar closer and closer, the heat is on, whether you be an honor student or not. I must admit, the last few weeks I fell prey to the fear and stress of trying to get everything done with seemingly no time and no plan. God pulled me out of that pit, and I'd like to share how.

Never lose sight of this fact: our circumstances are engineered by God for our good (Romans 8:28). It is one of the easiest things to forget as a Christian. The noise of the enemy can easily distract us into believing that life is merely "material," i.e., only about the world. The enemy creates noise within our circumstances (what about this? or that? or that thing? or what about that? or what will you do about that?), which gets our focus on our circumstances (and off of the God Who engineered them), and we begin to think, "What am I going to do!?" Immediately we are on the wrong track and we give in to panic, try desperately to take control of the situation, and fall into confusion, frustration, and despair.

Thus saith the Lord:

"See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with me; I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live forever." (Deuteronomy 32:39, 40)

"For I know the thoughts I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not evil, to give you an expected end." (Jeremiah 29:11)

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

Never, never, never, never, never, never, NEVER lose sight of the FACT that life is about the Great Story, i.e., the presence of God in our lives and how He draws us closer to His presence. That is the purpose that we are called to, that is for our good, the purpose that Jesus prayed for: "[That] they may be one, [Father,] even as we are one: I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one..." (John 17:22b, 23a). All circumstances are engineered by God to bring us closer into oneness with God through Christ.

Be mindful of your thoughts: the enemy will always point you to things; God will always point you to Himself, and that is when our "bit" comes in. God engineers the circumstances, but we choose how we go through them. Either we will submit to the sovereignty of God and be drawn closer into oneness with Him; or we will faithlessly try to control our circumstances (as though we had anything to do with them), turning away from God towards sinking sand, towards despair, towards death. The beauty of it all (much to the chagrin of the enemy) is that even if you choose the faithless route, God remains faithful (II Timothy 2:13): He will continue to engineer circumstances (even through our failures) so that we can again have the chance to surrender and be drawn closer into oneness with God.

Do not let the enemy deceive you into believing that your faithless choice has somehow stalled God. Human error is not accounted for. The enemy wants you hung up in the past; God rolls right along to the next circumstances, to the next chance. Every circumstance, no matter what its origins look like to us, are engineered by God to draw us to Him. This is the Great Story, and life is found only when we live in the reality of that story.

"I'm so sorry I've been so down.

I started thinking things could never turn around.

I began to believe that all we are is material.

It's nonsensical." -Switchfoot