Frequently, I hold up the Bible and tell young people: “You are living in this. You are living after Genesis and before Revelation.”
What does this mean? It means that God’s Story is both complete and incomplete. More on that later…
Recently, I met with a young person who told me he had “heard things.” Some good, some bad. Throughout our time together, we were able to discuss the “rest of the story.” What he knew – the story – was incomplete. Now, it isn’t.
Whatever the case, it got me to think about how often we make decisions, judge others, criticize people, hold onto the past, and shape JESUS based on an INCOMPLETE STORY!
I can’t tell you how many people do this. They STOP learning, STOP seeking after Jesus, STOP trying to figure out God, STOP trying to gain understanding because they think they have the COMPLETE STORY.
Life is a “complete-ing story.” We are on a journey. We won’t reach our destination until death and beyond. Therefore, we must pray heartily and strive mightily to get the WHOLE STORY even though we never will.
* With others, we must seek to gain a more complete story before passing judgment.
* With ourselves, we must never stop learning and never stop working to complete God’s Story.
* With Jesus, we must never stop seeking after the Real Jesus. We must never ARRIVE and never COMPLETE.
I’m passionate about this idea because the more I follow Jesus, the more I try to give young people a better STORY to live in, the more I go about completing my story, the more criticism I receive from people who don’t have the complete story, the more people who write off Jesus because they have an incomplete story — the MORE I realize how incredibly IMPORTANT it is to give people the tools to continue to pursue COMPLETE-ING the STORY in the ways of Jesus!
May God give you eyes to see and strength to live in the tension of a “Complete-ing Story.” May God give you a heart to seek a full understanding. May God give us all the courage and strength to work on uncovering a more complete Story!
At The Garage 