A Story of Self or My Autobiography

Recently I was editing a story I wrote about my special needs son, Jesse, for a blog a friend has put together (http://specialneedsspeciallove.com/) on the joys and struggles of raising special needs children.   It got me to thinking of how the story of my life would read, which in turn led me to thinking on the stories of the lives of saints in the Bible.  Most of the stories I thought of were quite different from what we would think of as a biography.  In fact all the stories were about much more than the individual.  I mused on the fact that the short story of our lives  is not even about us.  While I am a very vital character, I am not a primary character.  The story of my life intertwines with the story of the lives of many others, but most  importantly with the One who the story is about - God himself and the redemption of His people.

I've said it before, but one of my favorite stories in the Bible is that of Joseph.  It is amazing to read of his life with brothers who hated him, being sold as a slave, thrown into prison by a conniving spurned woman and being forgotten for years while there.   Joseph was definitely a man of faith, but his story is not even about that.  It is about how God used (and brought about) all of the snippets of his life to save His people from starvation, something Joseph was unaware of until near the end.   Even more than that it is just one small segment of the story of God's redemption.

There are other very interesting things individuals did in the Bible.  There was Noah building an ark on dry land to the amusement of his neighbors.  The apostle John was clothed in a loin cloth eating locusts and wild honey.  There were Daniel and his friends being thrown into a fiery furnace.   Esther became the queen of a pagan king.  Then there was Isaiah, who was called by God to be naked and barefoot for three years!  (I can just see the possible conversation with God, "Wouldn't my brother be better suited to this job?")  What about Hosea who was told to marry a prostitute?   Thinking on these stories reminds me why I object to so many Bible story books today:  they tend to focus on the interesting story without showing how it relates to the BIG story that it is a part of.   All of those stories are about far more than the individual characters and when I fail to see that I am missing the vital essence of the story.

As I think of my story, I know I tend to wrongly focus to a large degree on MY cancer when that is really a very small part of my life.  It is so reassuring to make note of biblical characters lives, see how they intertwine with the BIG story and be reminded that my story is about the Bride of Christ and how this one insignificant individual fits perfectly into the plan that God has for His Bride, the church.  As I face my follow-up scans before too long, it is a wonderful thought that my life with all its snippets is part of something much bigger - the story of redemption.  I don't need, nor do I want my independence, because as Paul Tripp in A Shelter in the time of Storm, says, "I was carefully designed by the Creator to live in a dependent, obedient, and worshipful relationship with him and in humble, interdependent relationships with other human beings.  The quest for independence is not simply a spiritual mistake;  it's a fundamental denial of my humanity."