Live A Good Story

So that’s been our life. We want to live a good story. A story that points others to God.

So that’s what we’ve done. That decision has lead us to structure our lives differently. It’s that decision that eventually led us here. We felt God calling us somewhere… But didn’t know where. We felt him calling us to leave our jobs and he would open doors for us in his time… So we did that. We quit our jobs, sold our house, put everything in storage, and just traveled the country for a few months. Some people told me that wasn’t wise, others you could tell they wanted to say that but didn’t. But our goal was to live a good story to respond fully to God’s call on our lives.

And after a 4-5 months I found Real Life. So we decided to move away from all our family and friends from CO to VA… Not because it was easy, but because that’s a better story. That’s where we felt God was leading. Just over a year in a tornado destroyed the building… And I thought… Oh great God… You bring us all the way out here for what? And I’ll admit for a while I didn’t know what to do. Do I keep trusting God or do I clean up my resume and bounce?

But soon after that thought I reminded myself I living a good story… I living for my calling and I just don’t think God would bring us all the way out here and end it just like that… And man am I so glad I trusted God and stayed. Because what a cool story God is telling through this church. And I’m so glad I get to be a small part of it.

Listen… This is what God is calling you too. He’s calling you to live a good story. And I think that’s what we all want isn’t it? That’s why we go see movies and read books. That’s why we get sucked into stories as we do. We want to live a meaningful and good story. And that’s what God is calling us to…

So if that’s what we all want, why do we settle? Because good stories don’t come cheap. They have a cost. Think about your favorite movie that you talked about earlier… My guess is that the main character in that movie had to overcome some kind of conflict. It probably cost them personally. To achieve that great story they had to personally suffer or give up something.

The same is true for us. If we want to live the good story that God is calling us too we are going to have to face some hardships. We are going to have to sacrifice. That’s what makes the story worth telling.

TRUTH

Jesus invites us into his story. Every one of his following has that invitation and has to decide how they are going to respond to the calling of Jesus. It’s been this way since Jesus called his first followers.

Let’s go back to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and look at the first people he called to step into a better story. As I read this story I want you to put yourself in Peter (Simon’s) shoes… At this point he’s been loosely following Jesus for about 9 months. But now he’s back at his families fishing business.

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret (Ga nes ser it)  2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.