I have always loved a good story. I guess that’s why I like to read and watch movies. I remember writing my own stories in elementary school. I would always write my friends’ names into the stories that way when I read it aloud in class, they would be more interested. What kid doesn’t like to hear that they are on an adventure in a haunted house?
I don’t think of myself as some grand writer that can touch the depths of the human soul through the words that he writes down. I have terrible grammar sometimes. I blame that on being raised in the south. But I do like to write stories. Some are true, and some are mostly true. But they all are from some life experience I have learned.
Why is that some stories speak to us? Two of my favorite films make me cry every time I see them. (Yes, I shed the occasional tear. I consider myself manly enough to know that sometimes tears are perfectly okay.) First, there’s A Time to Kill with Samuel L. and Matthew McConaughey. When Samuel goes out to hug his daughter after his trail…well it gets me every time. The second movie is the Pursuit if Happyness with Will Smith. Will’s had all of these hard times and then at the end he finds out he got the job. He knows at that moment that everything would be okay for himself and his son. I cry there too. (Just realized that these two movies revolve around fathers. Guess I have father issues. Funny.)
I hope you have seen those two films; if not go right now.
We all have our own stories of life that we are living in. If I had to guess I would say that there are themes that are similar in all of our stories. We all know pain. There have been heart-breaking moments that have brought us to our knees. We all have also made mistakes in the past that we regret. I have had so many times that I have messed up, I lost count years ago. If we are truthful, I bet we all have lived some moments of our lives in fear. There’s the fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of being alone, fear of being laughed at, fear of the future, and I could go on.
But the great thing about our stories is they’re not written in stone. Our future in our story can change. Why? Because our God is a god that loves His children. That’s one of the most important things you can ever learn: that God loves you just as you are right now. And because His love is the greatest story ever told, then He has the ability to transform every story ever told. Because of His love for us, we no longer have to live stories of hurt, or guilt, or fear. Because of His love for us, we can live stories of love, of redemption, of courage. I’m not saying that with God everything in life is perfect with sunshine and rainbows and butterflies. What I am saying is that He has a way of changing the way we see things when we just simply put our trust in Him, even the way we see our own stories.
