Living Without a Story
Scripture Reading — Luke 12:13-21
This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.
—Luke 12:21
It’s amazing how many people go through life without a decent story. It may look like they “have it all,” but without a sense of God shaping the story of their lives, they have a gaping emptiness deep within.
The tell-tale sign is an underlying sense of franticness. This may be masked by external appearances, which can be very misleading.
But once you get to know someone who has little or no sense of God shaping their life story, the more you begin to discover where their underlying restlessness comes from. Without a believable story line for the future, they feel the need to grab anything and everything all at once. They have to have it all.
They go through life like famine victims at a buffet: trying to grab all they can because they don’t know when they might eat next.
They have no way of knowing if their lives are on track, and at some point it shows.
Jesus promised a life that is far different from that. He urged us not to worry, trusting that if God arranges life so that even the flowers and the birds are adequately cared for, he’ll certainly make sure that our life stories make it to “happily ever after.”
Lord, we know what you have in store for us—a life of trust in you so that we can’t imagine settling for anything less than your best for our lives. Amen.
About the author — Ron Vanderwell
Ron Vanderwell recently became the senior pastor of New Life Church in New Lenox, Illinois. He has been a pastor for 22 years, serving as a church planter for the previous 12 years at The Gathering in Sacramento, California, and before that as a pastor in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Ron and his wife, Deb, have three sons: John, Adam, and Jake.
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