Chapters of Life

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.

J.M. BARRIE, The Little Minister

            Today I heard someone talk about how our life is a story.  My life as I currently live it is not an accident.  It is not happen stance that I am right where I am at this very moment but is instead being penned by an author who not only can see back to before time even began but to infinity.  Think about that.  Your life, my life, is not chance.  When you think about your life from that perspective it really does change things.  If you go one step further and not just think about it from that perspective but LIVE it from that perspective it changes everything.

            Every story has chapters.  Whether it is one page or a hundred our life is made up of segments.  Some are so glorious and joyful that we wish we could stay and abide there forever.  They make us feel sustained and complete.  We feel like conquerors.  We are encircled with love and it seems like life could not be any richer or more beautifully written.  Then there are those chapters that even one word seems like too many.  Where the pain is so deep and so intense that we feel like we could break into a million pieces if someone merely breathed on us.  Those chapters where life feels like it is crushing us.  Like Atlas who was punished by having to hold the world on his shoulders, it feels like we are chained to a mountain of despair with the burden of every minute pressing further and further in our chest.  Just to breathe is an effort and we do not feel like they are ever going to end but would wish with our very last breath that we could have just one second of reprieve.  Then there are the moments in between.  The chapters where life is not extremely joyful or crushingly sad but instead are mundane, routine, or normal.  The days that roll from one day into two and then suddenly a month has gone by or even a year.  These chapters are made up of small decisions, small tasks, and seemingly small moments.  However, it is in these chapters that most of life is lived.  It is in these chapters that we see our story fleshed out and we see how to live life during both the times of joy and the times of despair.

            I by nature am a reflective person.  I am constantly analyzing and searching for that next thing.  The next thing that will enhance or improve my journey.  I look at my life, my choices, my decisions, my circumstances and search and search for what I could have done or what I should have done.  Like a computer search engine looking for the most relevant solution, my heart and mind are always searching for the key.  What is the key to my life?  To my future?  What is the next line being written into my story?  You see, if I know ahead of time what will be then maybe I will be ready for it.  Maybe I can prepare myself for what is to come.  Because like any storyteller the Master Storyteller knows that life cannot be lived completely in those moments of bliss.  Yes, He is the Prince of Peace and He intends us to live an abundant life but that is IN SPITE of our circumstances not INSTEAD of them. 

The last few weeks I have been reflecting back on the latest chapters of my life still searching for that missing element.  Change, turmoil, and stress always drive me to search.  In the beginning as I looked back on the last few months and all I saw was failure.  The current theme of my life story is health.  For two years, I have poured my time, energy, money, heart, soul, and body into fighting for my life.  That is not taking things to an extreme.  It is the honest truth.  I looked back and I saw weight gain not loss.  I saw pain showing back up after months of none.  I saw my life as stagnant and unmoving.  I saw unwanted change.  The story I saw written before my eyes was dim, dark, depressing.  It was a story of a woman who had lost hope and was searching to renew it.  That is the story I saw written.  However, it is not the true story.

What is the true story?  What was the Master writing not on the pages of a book but on my very heart?  None of what I saw was untrue.  I had gained weight.  I had started hurting again.  I was stagnant and unmoving.  I did have to change things against every fiber of my being.  The difference was that he saw none of that as dim, dark, or depressing.  This chapter of my life was one of developing strength and the beginnings of loosening the dependence I have on others.  You see in my gym there are phases to training.  Stamina is my favorite because in those actions of running, jumping, hopping, spinning, etc. I feel like an athlete and someone who can conquer the world.  There is speed which I have not done before because honestly, I have bigger fish to fry.  There is size which is not necessary and then there is strength.  Strength is boring.  Strength is painful.  Strength is an exercise in monotony.  It takes extreme effort and attention to detail to maximize its benefits.  It is a necessity to stamina.  It builds the muscles which burn the calories more effectively in stamina.  That is what this summer was to me.  The past few months in my story have been boring.  They have not changed from day to day.  They have been painful as I have had stress mount with each passing day about my future.  I have been wounded deeply by the continued delays of my dreams and deepest desires.  I have had to wake up every day and fight against the feelings of failure and the pain and shame that brings.  I have had to bring attention to the exact details of exercise, food consumption, job searches, and relationships.  None of it has been fun.  But it has been necessary.  A time is coming soon when my story will begin a new chapter and it will be one where I need stamina.  Where I need every muscle and life skill burning to make it through.  Where I will face untold challenges and partake in unforeseen joy.  It will be in those times that the challenges of the strength phase and story will come to light.  It will be then that I will see why my Master Storyteller chose for me to live through these pages of life.

All good stories and good characters have relationships.  Even Jesus the ultimate character of all time was surrounded by a family and his disciples.  Harry had Ron and Hermione walk side by side with him as he uncovered truth, love, and defeated evil.  Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy had countless supporters as Kings and Queens of Narnia.  Since Eve was created for Adam, we were always intended to walk in communion and fellowship with others.  What we were not intended to do is find our ultimate happiness in other people.  We were not written to depend on others to get through life but instead to support one another on the individual stories that have been woven together to form one overarching story.  We are all supporting cast members in the lives of others.  This has always been my weakness.  This is a weakness I am determined to break.  So during this chapter of life new characters were introduced to lessen the dependence on others on this journey.  Thankfully, they are not completely removed.  Thankfully, so far my Storyteller has chosen to leave them as great supporting cast members.  If I continue to walk in the ways He has written, then those bonds will become even greater instead of becoming stripped down by wear and tear.

My story is not over.  In reality, in light of eternity, it has only just begun.  When you read a story it is imperative that you know the beginning of the story.  Sometimes as you read chapter after chapter you forget where you started.  I do.  I forget where my story began.  I forget that it was only 21 months ago that I weighed 340 pounds.  I forget that I was so scared to join a gym that I cancelled my very first appointment I made with them.  I forget that I was a 27 year old fat (Sometimes that word sounds so harsh but sometimes it is the only one that can convey the truth) girl just trying to survive.  I had long quit trying to thrive and live out the story that my Master Storyteller was trying to write.  I was everything everyone wanted me to be and did not even know what I was or what I wanted.  The only thing that I knew that day was that I wanted to be different.  Over the 21 months that have passed I have not only shed a tremendous amount of weight but I have changed a lot emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  The person that I was written and created to be has begun to show through bit by bit.  Some of it is slower to develop than others but I see it.  I feel it.  Yes, it is scary.  I cannot see what the next page holds.  I cannot see when my dreams will be fulfilled.  Sometimes I do not like the person I see because that person has started writing her own story.  She has stolen the pen from the Master.  It is in those moments where I start to lose hope.  It is easy to see why.  The characters were not meant to write their own story.  They were meant to live the one written for them.  That is when I must hand the pen back to the Author and trust His loving pen stroke. 

Like the above quote states there are two stories.  The one we intended to write and the one that was actually written.  My question to you is this, which story are you walking in?  You can walk everyday in the story YOU intend to write.  You can walk everyday in the story YOU are writing.  You can get as much out of life as you can come up with.  You can accept the simple story that a finite being can write.  Or you can walk in the story that the Eternal Creator has been writing since the beginning of time.  You can walk in the story that was written expressly for you.  You can walk in the story that is lovingly written not only in the pages of time but the very heart that beats in your chest.  The story that is carved into the hands that stretched out wide on a cross and died so that your story would never end.  “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” Isaiah 49:16