Editing our Life

 

Last week, I invited you to consider and come up with words on how you would title the chapters of your life.  This is never a one and down exercise.  I hope in the weeks to come, you will continue to let God, our co-author, help you edit how you describe and define the decades of your life.  The words you select are important because they shine a light on the story you are telling yourself about your life.  For example, last week, I suggested that I could title the chapter of my 30s as, “White-knuckling life.”  There is truth to that.  I could also title those years as, “Awaking up to my passion and purpose.”  It was in my 30s that I began to sense how meaningful writing and preaching sermons are to me.  God planted a seed in the soil of my soul in those years that God continues to tend.  As the roots of that seed reached down, the holy nudged me to search (like the pearl merchant from the parable yesterday) for a doctorate program where I might learn more and hone this love of mine.  The seed of preaching, teaching, and writing continues to be part of the garden God is cultivating and curating in my story today.  YOU, each of you, who read and respond to these morning mediations, YOU are helping me.  When I look at my 30s that way, a different story can be told than the struggling and striving – white knuckling my life.  Alternatively, I could title my 30s, “Discovering a true treasure”.  Which is true – white knuckling life or treasuring?  Both are.  Both were part of who I was, still am, and seeking to be.  Both shine a light on what was going on in me and around me. 

 

You can go back and edit your chapter title to the story called, “Your Life.”  Perhaps as you edit, with God’s grace and love, new stories (that were always there, just hidden beneath the surface – like a treasure in a field) start to emerge.  These stories are seeds…or fish we’ve caught in our net and didn’t realize were there. 

 

I encourage you to engage the spiritual prayer practice of authoring your story.  You can also return and revise the ten top lists of your life.  Those moments that have left meaning in your heart, shaped your soul, and are part of the story you tell yourself. 

 

Please remember, I would love to see the chapter titles and top ten lists you are coming up with in these summer days.  May God, who edits not with a red pen, but with a love that will not let us go help you find new words and ways to tell your story in these days.  With great love and creativity and peace to you all!