There's something about story that never fails to intrigue me. It captivates me, reading about the travels, the struggles, the hopes of other people. Of ordinary people. Of superheroes. Of just plain people who end up living in a story they never would have written themselves. How different their responses are! I often wonder what they would have been, had they known beforehand of what was coming, or if the author had not set them through certain seemingly obscure events which ultimately prepared them for the ending. It makes me sit and ponder my own story. Are there similarities? Or where am I standing right now? And what of the way my story interacts with those of my friends, my community, my workplace? How is my story important to all these roles I take on? Perhaps the biggest question that stands before me when I think of this is, how is God authoring my story and inviting me in to writing it? Having just come from a time with co-workers where we shared where we were coming from, where we currently see ourselves, and what lies ahead, I found myself thinking of the twists and turns in my story that I couldn't even have anticipated a year ago. Is that true of all stories? If you stopped your story right now and looked around, would this have been where you predicted you'd be right now? Have you ever really sat down and let yourself feel all the past things you've been through, maybe even just over the past few weeks or months? Or do you just discredit it and look forward, hoping for something more? I'm realizing more and more how incredibly life-giving it is, at least in my life, to look back on where I've come from and ponder it in the place I am standing right now. Like the Israelites who were captives in Egypt because of their history, whose hearts were prepared for freedom from the Egyptians because of their time of oppression, I find that, even though the stories that make up my history don't always make sense individually, the whole of the history has shaped me and prepared me for today. For this morning. As I think on living in the moment of today and living it to its fullness, I don't think I'd be nearly as stoked for today if I didn't know where I was yesterday. I know I'd appreciate it, in all its richness. But I can say with certainty that, in knowing where God has brought me from and knowing how my responses have changed because of that history, that knowing brings a whole new level of appreciation and thankfulness. So I wonder today, if you ponder your past stories and hold up your today, looking through the lens of your past, what would you see?
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