The Conflicting Stories of Our Life

 

I hope you are noticing that we live in multiple stories going on at the same time.  You are part-taking, participating in many plays/narratives/stories all at the same time.  One of the stresses and strains of our world is that each of these stories is competing to be number one in your life.  Our stories want our allegiance, attention, and affirmation.  Beginning to sort through the threads of narratives woven into the story of your life feels like looking at the back of a chaotic tapestry.  Yet on the front or on the side you offer to the world, we try to present a coherent picture.  Have you ever felt like you are trying to make sense of the messy or chaotic, and contradictory threads of your life?  

At the same time, we are told that we can author our own story.  That you are both the writer, director, producer, and leading role in the play of your life. 

Hold the tension here.  On the one hand, many voices are trying to take the pen from your hand and tell you what to do, be, think, and show up.  On the other hand, we are told that you are responsible and accountable for your life.  We are constantly swimming in the waters between the shores of free will and limited agency.  Yes, I can make choices.  Yes, I often use other people’s insights and information for those choices.  Yes, I can feel stuck between a rock and a hard place with limited choices ~ except when I am in the cereal aisle at the store.  Good Lord, who needs that many options for breakfast! 

When have you felt like you had to conform or contort your story to fit inside someone else’s?  To be sure, there are times I want to do this for my family or friends or someone I love.  There are times I resent having to carry a narrative that is like that suit jacket I talked about on Monday ~ two sizes too big.

Have you ever broken or branched out of a story to write something new, different, only to have people tell you to get back in line and stick to your knitting? 

On Sunday, we will begin a new sermon series on your story.  Yet, I do so, realizing and recognizing that parts of your story were given to you.  You didn’t decide where and when to be born…nor did you get a choice of biological parents.  I didn’t get to decide to be born in Iowa in the mid-1970s.  I didn’t get a vote when my parents were forced to move.  I wasn’t asked which high school I wanted to attend.  I did have some choice in college, but even then, I limited myself to what was nearby.  Before we start to explore the paint on the canvas of your life, I want you to realize that some of the color choices on the palette were already there.  Play with this image today, letting it awaken you to the moments when another person played editor to your story ~ this could have been welcomed or unwelcomed.  For example, when we had children, they edited our story in trying to take their needs/emotions/thoughts into consideration.  Let’s keep playing with this idea as a way to enter the mystery of the story that is your life.  Amen.