Finding Stories

"I need a good adventure story." I said to myself. "A story about a journey of faith." 

I don't know if you ever do this, but sometimes this is how I think when I want to study something in the Bible. I look at my own life and the place where I am, and I try to find a Bible story, passage, or book that related to what I am going through. As I prepared to venture to Burkina Faso a couple of weeks ago, I needed a good story about journeys and adventures. The Lord brought to my mind the story of the Israelites as they journeyed out of Egypt and into the promised land. So I read Exodus cover to cover in preparation for my trip. 

As I read, I found myself there in the middle of the story of the Israelites. I felt their fear when they left everything familiar to them because I too would be leaving my "Egypt". I felt their discouragement when the enemy followed them across the Red Sea because I know what it is like to be attacked by my enemy, the devil, when I obey the Lord. I felt their joy at God's provisions for them, but I also wanted to complain with them in the heat of the desert. I loved the imagery of God guiding Israel with a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, and I began to pray for God to lead me that obviously, too. Most of all, I related to Moses when he told the Lord, "Do not send us up from here without your presence." And I felt Gof whisper the same response to me as he gave to Moses: "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

While I was in Burkina, I needed a good story about a calling or an invitation that was followed with a resounding yes. I needed a story of faith and reckless abandonment. I felt like God was calling me to take a leap of faith, so I needed something that I could relate to. The Lord took me to the story of Abram starting in Genesis 12. From the very beginning of the story, my heart was drawn in because I felt so much like Abram every step of the way. God has shown me a land, too, and I must leave everything and go the land he has shown me. Like Abram, I don't have much of a plan (although I have to admit I have more of a plan than he did!), and like Abram, I want to walk by faith and not by sight. My pencil went crazy all throughout the book of Genesis as I underlined and jotted notes in the margins. I honestly could not believe how much the story spoke to me.

Upon my return from Burkina, I felt like I had been given a calling and then asked to wait. "I need a story about waiting," I told the Lord, and he directed me to the story of David. Although he was anointed by Samuel very early in the story, it took years and years of unexpected turns of events to actually get David on the throne. As I read about David's period of waiting, I began to see how all the wilderness wanderings, nights spent in caves, and attempts taken at David's life were all part of the preparation for this young king. In the same way, I am beginning to see all my bumps in the road and times of waiting as intentional preparation for my life in Burkina. 

I don't know if my method of studying the Bible is purely correct, but I do know this: God still speaks through his Word, and it applies directly to our lives in whatever circumstances we face. If you find yourself wanting more of God's Word, yet not knowing where to start, start with where you are. What are you feeling? What are you thinking? What do you need a story about? Do you need a story about trials and opposition? Try Nehemiah. Are you looking for a good story about overcoming grief? Consider reading Ruth. Do you need courage? Look into Esther. Need more praise? Read the Psalms. Want more of Jesus? Start in the gospel of John. 

Everything that we need can be found in the scriptures: hope, purpose, renewed strength, courage, peace. Nothing that we are going through hasn't already been experienced by one of our saints or heros of the faith. That's why we can always turn to God's Word for truth and direction. May we never cease to be amazed at how much we can relate to the characters in the stories of the Bible.

Just as the stories are a part of us, so also we are a part of the ongoing stories of faith. 

Because God is still writing stories. Stories of faith. Stories of adventure. Stories of wandering and waiting. Stories of triumph against all odds. Sometimes we detach ourselves from the biblical heros and just picture them as entirely different people from us way back when. But the real hero of the story is God, and he has not changed. He is still writing biblical stories through us today. 

What if the bible just kept going, telling more and more stories about God's work in the world and in the lives of his people. What would my story say? What about yours? What would people gain from reading our stories? What would they learn about God? 

Hebrews 12:2 calls Christ the "author and perfector of our faith." I love tha. Christ, the Author, wrote the stories of people's lives long ago and recorded them in the pages of our Bibles. And Christ, the Author, is still writing our lives into stories that will magnify his name and draw the people of the nations closer to him. 

We find ourselves in the stories, and we find more stories in us.