The story isn't over.

I was sitting with one of my coworkers, Benji, at a recent seminar. During the break we started chatting about life. I was telling him that one of my daughters has been reading during almost all of her free time. Just the night before, she wrote down all the books that she had read. We discovered that she had read at least seventeen books in since January. (It was now May.) I also remembered that she had started reading at the beginning of our "unplanned journey." I was sharing this with Benji because I thought that there must be something or some reason that she was pouring herself into these books. Benji is only in his thirties, but he is very wise beyond his years. Without hesitation he said, "She is reading everything she can get her hands on because these stories are safe. They all have good endings. You see, she thinks her story is over. Life suddenly changed for her and that is the end of her story and the ending was tragic. So now it is just safer for her to read books. Contrary to her life, these stories all have good endings." He then went on to say, "But, if she can only grasp the idea that her story is not over -- that the story of her life is still being written, and what she needs to understand is that Christ can help her write a beautiful story with a great ending."

He then went on to tell me about a blog that he had written about that very idea and later shared the blog with me. It touched my heart deeply. I am so thankful for it and have gone back and read it again many times. I want to share his words with you in hopes that they will help you as they have helped me.



Don't judge a book by its cover, judge a story by its ending.
Author: Benji Pappal (February 2006)
The blog was actually the end of a speech Benji had given at a Junior/Senior Banquet two years earlier.

I've never understood why all filmakers and writer aren't Christians. They are constantly writing awesome stories that have happy endings to them. The characters all fit, and the ending makes sense, but why should we dream of stories such as these? Why do we yearn for this type of tale?

Is this the way our stories are? Do we see more happy endings, or tragic endings? Actually, we see more pointless endings. Life seems a random series of pointless events. People live, people die, but what really happens?

I saw a quote that really made me start to think about this. Aristotle once said, "Epics are about people better than us, and comedies are about people that are worse than us; but tragedies are about people that are just like us."

Humans were not meant to write their own stories, because we write only tragedies. We write our lives in a way that causes a recurring theme, and that theme is 'What might have been.' We may write a story that looks good in chapter five, but by the end the plot comes crashing down and the characters fall apart. Just like Romeo and Juliet, which looks good for a while but ends in sadness; so is the story of our lives. Doomed to be nothing but a tragic tale for others to read.

That's if we write it.

But what if we let Christ write it? What if the author of all.....the ultimate story teller, the eternal weaver of tales.....what if He were to write our life? What if we gave the pen over to Him? What if we allowed Him to write the title, and the chapters, and the plot, and the characters? What type of story could He tell?

A much better one.

He will write an epic, a story of such majesty and hope that it will inspire all who watch our story unfold, and countless others who only hear of the tale. He will fill it with characters and twists to intrigue and excite even the dullest of imaginations. Pain there will be, hard times too; but that won't matter because it will make sense. It will be the ultimate classic to us, one of our favorites, because it will be our own.

But we have to give the pen over to Him. We have to let Him write the tale. He must be the final author of all we do. There is no half way. For Him to write the beautiful story that is to be ours, we must give all that is ours over to Him. The pen must go into His hands, and what He writes will be our lives. Because even if chapter five looks really bad, the final chapter will be an ending beyond belief.

I know not the plot, nor the characters, that is to be your life, or even my own; but this I know: His stories are always the best; trust Him with the pen, and you won't ever regret that you did.

There is absolutely nothing more that I could add to this.