How Does the Story End?

I admit it. I'm not a big reader. If you read Matt Elliott's blog, you will know of his recent reading explosion. It's not that I can't read...it's just hard for me to stay focused while reading for a long period of time. As a result, I try to read books basically by tackling one chapter at a time. If I conquer two chapters in one sitting, that is considered a major accomplishment. Well, after several months (yes, I said months), I have finally finished "The Sacred Romance", another one of John Eldridge's books. He cowrote this one with Brent Curtis so I can't give my man John all of the credit. The book refers to our life on earth as part of a larger story. Sometimes the story is wonderful, sometimes awful, and sometimes a confusing combination of the two. Our problem is trying to interpret the meaning of life with only isolated incidents in our life which are pretty much fragments of the big story. This simply can't be done because we can't see the "big picture". According to John Eldridge, we try to find meaning in our lives by attempting to lose ourselves in the smallest kinds of stories such as the "tragedy", the "survivor", the "romantic" (popular with women), and the "athlete" (popular with men). All of these fail to give us the true answer we're looking for.

This big story is authored by a well-known but misunderstood writer...God. We are only small characters in this novel. Your life may begin and end in one chapter. You may be able to play a part in two or three chapters. We must understand that what we see and experience every day is just a small portion of the big story. My question is..."where are you in this story?" I think I know where I am and it's not a very comfortable place. Have you ever read a book that contained chapters that you never thought you would ever finish? The content of those chapters wasn't the most interesting or "edge of the seat" material in the book and it seemed like it took forever to get through it so you could read something more interesting. Sometimes, you wondered why those chapters were even included. By the time you reach the following chapters, you realize that the previous "boring" chapters were necessary to completely understand what would take place later on.

I feel like I'm in one of those chapters now. It's been a long chapter and, to be honest, it's kind of boring right now. Some things have happened in this chapter that I don't understand and it seems like it will never end. However, I'm looking forward to the chapters that follow. I know that the author of this book has an incredible ending that awaits me. It is of no use to try to understand this small portion that I'm experiencing right now. I just can't wait to turn the page and see that big number telling me a new chapter is about to begin. When I do reach that chapter and my portion of the novel becomes much more interesting, I'll be sure to let you know. Until then...happy reading!