THIS IS A GOOD STORY

Do you ever struggle with the things that you simply can't understand? The things of the past that you just can't come to grips with? Or the parts of the future that you can't see yet? 

If I'm being honest, lately I have been struggling to believe that God is writing a good story. I KNOW that he is, but sometimes it doesn't FEEL like it. I know that he knows what he's doing, but I don't understand it myself. And there's a part of me that wishes I did. 

I like things to be CLEAR. I like it when I can SEE the lines on the page. I like NEAT penmanship. 

But what if God doesn’t have neat penmanship? What if it’s hard to make out the story that he’s writing? What if I can’t read it, so I just have to trust his words when he says that the story he’s writing is good? What if he’s not hiding it from me and what if he’s not still writing it, but my little brain just can’t comprehend all the words on the page?

It’s like trying to read in a different language. I understand some of it, and I can get the gist sometimes…but other times I’m completely lost and I need a translator.

Jesus. Jesus came to be the translator. Jesus came to make it clear what is most important to know. So maybe he’s not an impersonal translator, but more of a personal teacher. He came to teach us the most important things, but he couldn’t stay here forever because we’re not supposed to learn it all. That’s impossible for us right now in our fallen, human state. 

Jesus, the good teacher. Who brought us good news. To teach us a good story. One that we may not fully understand…but when we get to the end of the book, we’ll say, “Wow. That was a GOOD BOOK. God is a GOOD WRITER.” 

And maybe he won’t translate it all into English by the end, but we’ll understand enough to be able to confidently say that the book was GOOD. 

So in the meantime, I’ll keep reading this chapter. I’ll keep struggling through it. I’ll look forward to the challenge. I'm determined to not get discouraged when I don’t understand. I WILL TRUST that this story has a GOOD ENDING. And I might miss some of the details…but the important part is that I understand the main point of the story: that it’s not really about the story itself, but the author.

Our story is about the author. And THAT is what makes this story good.