Who doesn’t love a good story? Little kids would stay up all night if you read “just one more.” We’ll binge an entire season of a show in a weekend yet are hungry for more. We make fun of those cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies and yet sit through 3 without even thinking twice.
Why? Because stories engage the human heart like nothing else. Jesus knew this better than anyone. That’s why He never once stood up to teach without a story – lost sheep, prodigal sons, hidden treasure and wicked tenants. Matthew tells us this was on purpose:
Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. This fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet: ‘I will speak to you in parables. I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world. Matthew 13:34-35 NLT, quoting Psalm 78:2 NLT)
Jesus spoke in parables because stories have the ability to bring down one’s defenses. I like to refer to them as the language of the heart. They stir up emotions that go straight to the core of our being.
Think about your favorites movies. The ones you can watch over and over yet they still grip you. I’m sure you have your list and here’s mine.
Gladiator Braveheart The Lord of the Rings
Ask yourself: What is it about the movies on your list that speak to you?
What is it about Maximus walking into the Colosseum knowing he will probably die? What is it about William Wallace screaming “Freedom!” with his last breath? What is it about Frodo carrying a burden that is literally killing him, step after agonizing step, while Sam carries him when he can’t go on?Something in these stories resonate within you and the best have an element of not playing it safe. They take you down a path of risk with an uncertain outcome. Unexpected twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat. You literally cannot predict what’s going to happen next or how it will end.
Will Maximus beat Commodus?
Will William Wallace rescue his fair maiden in time? Will Frodo make it to Mount Doom to destroy the ring?
That tension stirs something inside us as the hero rides a roller-coaster of emotions: highest of highs, lowest of lows, and everything in between. Laughter, sadness, suspense, action, intrigue, romance, heartbreak—it’s all there. And if we are brutally honest, we find it much more fun to spectate than to participate. We all like to watch a good story, but living inside one? Nah, I’m good.We want to know how the story ends before we’ll commit. We want to limit the risk, the heartache, the trials. We want to control the outcome.
We want the highs without the lows. We want the reward without the risk. We want to pursue the girl (or the dream, or the calling) but never face setback. We want the easy path. We want all the adventure and none of the hardship.We all scream for the happily-ever-after but here’s the cruel irony: the ending we say we want almost always requires the very path we spend our lives trying to avoid. When things get tough, we want the easy button. Jesus never once promised an easy life, in fact he said the exact opposite.
In this world you will have trouble. John 16:33 NLT The diagnosis comes. The relationship fractures. The dream dies. The child wanders. The money runs out. The darkness feels endless.
Our natural tendency is to take matters into our own hands. When it doesn’t go our way, we grab the pen and attempt to write our own story. Or we throw the pen away entirely and declare that life is nothing but randomness and chaos. Whatever happens, happens. We play the victim and check out. In either case, we create our own narrative because the soul cannot live in meaninglessness so we have to make sense of the world around us somehow.
As a result we put ourselves, kids, comfort, or success on center stage. However, no matter how big we manage to make that story feel, it is still infinitely smaller in every way than God’s. We get stuck inside our own little script, frantically looking for answers in the story we think we are writing. That’s exactly when and why our stories make us lose heart. Deep down we all know we were created for more. There is a story written inside us that none of us can fully shake. There is a story etched on every single one of our hearts that is far greater than anything we could ever imagine on our own.
Yet day after day, year after year, we settle for far too small a story in our lives. Our lives are not wasted because the causes are too large and we fail. Our lives are can be wasted because the causes are too small and we succeed.And here is my challenge to every one of us as we begin Advent: Recognize that Advent is not just a season on the church calendar. Advent is a story. A far greater story than any nativity scene or children’s Christmas pageant could ever represent.
One of my favorite quotes from the Lord of the Rings is when Sam and Frodo are climbing the endless, ash-covered slopes of Mount Doom. They are starving, dehydrated, clothed in rags, and the ring is eating Frodo alive and hope is a distant memory. In that moment Sam looks around and says:
“I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into.”
That single sentence gets me every time. That is the question we need to be asking ourselves right now, today, in this very moment.
What sort of tale have you fallen into?
Advent is the glorious reminder that the story is not about us.
You have actually, literally, fallen into the Greatest Story ever told.
The Author of the universe has been moving since before the foundation of the world. The true King has left the safety of His throne and the author enters the story. He has crossed the great divide. He has entered occupied territory disguised as a crying, helpless baby, born to a teenage girl in a nowhere town, laid in a feeding trough because no one made room.
The dragon is preparing for war. Herod is already sharpening his sword. The cross is already casting its shadow.
This is not cute. This is not safe. This is epic, high-stakes, do or die drama.
And you are not in the audience.
You are in the story.
Your heartbreak, your waiting, your Monday morning, your hospital room, your prodigal, your unanswered prayer—none of it is a side plot. It is all part of the Greater Story.