The Stories We Live

Our lives – and the life of our families – are driven by narrative.  Story.

Game designers understand this. The more emotionally and mentally invested we are in their alternate realities, the more money they make. The more power they have to sway us.

The entertainment industry understands this.

The news media understands this.

Social media understands it.

Political parties understand it.

Every day, buildings full of people strategize – spending millions of dollars – to captivate your family with a story you will learn to call your own. Each with a narrative for a better life. Safer. More fulfilled. More 'in control.'

Scripture's storyline tells us otherwise. It tells us other gods and other kingdoms will never satisfy. But they will enslave us with fear, addiction, apathy, and distraction.

The Bible’s narrative is one in which you and your children are called to redeem your world. Its storyline is a call to action. To change what is falling apart around you and among you. To create something new and good.

One word used to describe God's People is "priests" – indicating that we are ordained to mediate between God and the world. With our sacred words and actions we bring God's presence into the world. Simultaneously, we usher our world and our people into the very life of God. Into His Kingdom.

We must find ways to embody this storyline with our families. Because the storyline we live in our families is the storyline we are discipling them into.

You are God's People. His Tribe. Part of a Holy Nation. A Royal Priesthood.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.
– 1 Peter 2:9-10a

If you are careful to love the LORD your God and worship Him with all your heart and soul, I – your God – will abundantly bless you. Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside and give your allegiance to other things. Take these words of Mine into your hearts and souls. Teach them to your children, talking about them (with your children) when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

For if you carefully observe every one of these commands I am giving you to follow – that is, to love the LORD your God, to journey in His ways, and to remain faithful to Him – your days and those of your children will be many in the land of the LORD.
– Deuteronomy 11:13-25 (paraphrased)