Musing 12

One of the things that stuck with me from my reading of Kingdom through Covenant about a decade ago was its introduction and how we long for a story.

And that lens to understand people is so good. Our desires for acceptance can be phrased as “I want to be part of that story” (in a positive way!). Our desire for justice or healing and victory is “I want there to be a resolution”. Sure, it’s a bit facile to cast potentially serious things in this way, but I think the desire for story is something hardwired into us.

When we look at creation, we recognize there is something and Someone beyond us. We recognize that we aren’t the main character. But we long to know that Main Character. Sin corrupts that desire into us so often making ourselves the main character of our story, but we cannot escape the eternal realities, no matter how hard we try.

But let’s think about the ways in which stories bring out the desires in our heart. We love revenge and Robin Hood stories because we want to see wrongs corrected and for hurt people to be healed. We love romance because we recognize that we were not created to be alone, and that God has designed marriage to be the primary human fulfillment for loneliness (though that too is just a pointer to our union with our Creator).

The ability of story to turn our hearts is also why many of our forebears were cautious of fiction. Fiction can turn our hearts so easily, rousing our emotions in such a way that they are deadened to real happenings or to wrongly support sinful things. And so if we do partake in fiction (and I admit I love sci-fi, so I strive to be mindful here) we must guard our hearts.

As a concluding thought - it has been said that we are the average of our 5 closest friends. I think I’d expand that to “we are the average of the 5 stories we most strive after”. May those stories be centered on the true main character of creation’s story!