Your Story

 

Some rights reserved by jjpacres - from Flickr

Some rights reserved by jjpacres – from Flickr

I like good stories and hope to share meaningful stories occasionally on this blog.  Each of us are writing our own story.  Our story is important because it helps shape our self-identity and influences others.  I like to think about it as if we are writing two stories.  The first, I call the facts;  this is what happens to us.  The second, is the choices we make based upon what happens to us.  Peter and Judas are a great example of this point.  They both shared many of the same experiences, yet in the end, they chose much differently.  We are made up of our experiences — the facts of our life.  We must plumb our facts to know our story and seek to understand other people’s story.  We need to listen and learn from the facts.  But that is not the sole story of our lives.  Each person has the power to determine how they will perceive the facts and react to them.  This is why our mental perspective and right thinking is so important.  We must process the events, learn from them, and gain inspiration.  This leads to the final step of acting or writing our own story.  This is about what you do in the present.  You can only control what you can control.  Peter wept bitterly, prayed, found forgiveness, and went on to do great things for Christ (Luke 22:61-62, John 20:1-8, 21:7-19, Acts, 1 and 2 Peter).  Judas was overcome with guilt and committed suicide (Mat. 27:5, Acts 1:16-19).

What is your story?     Consider your facts, reflect and process the emotions from them, and then choose how you are going to write your story through your life and actions.  This is the greatness of the gospel of Christ, we get a fresh start and a new beginning (Rom. 6:3-6, 8:1-8).  The past shapes who you are, but it does not have to define who you are today.  

Josh

(To listen to a sermon on this topic go here)

 

 

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