Key Verse:
“This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand’”
(Matthew 13:13)
Central Truth:
Jesus used stories to speak to our hearts. Our lives, also, are a story; each one part of a larger story that God is writing. A story of grace and love, and an epic battle that is underway for our hearts.
DID I MISS SOMETHING?
“For most of us, life feels like a movie we’ve arrived at forty-five minutes late.”
- John Eldredge, Epic
Have you ever done that? Have you ever shown up to a movie once it has already started? I remember my wife and I taking our kids and a couple of their friends to go see the VeggieTales movie The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. We were running a little behind, so she took the kids into the theater while I waited in line to get the snacks. By the time I got into the theater, the movie had started, the Pirates were already off on an adventure, and I didn’t know why.
Our lives feel like that sometimes, don’t they? Like we were dropped into the middle of some story, the adventure has already begun, and we are frantically trying to figure out what’s happening and why. As Frodo and Sam near Mordor in The Lord of the Rings, Sam remarks: “I wonder what sort of tale we’ve fallen into?” Sam realizes that there is a larger story than the one he has always known and that he has been swept up into it. Chances are, you know there’s a larger story too. A story filled with danger and beauty. A story where the hero is willing to do whatever it takes to rescue your heart from the villain who is literally hell-bent on destroying it. Oh yes, your heart is at stake here. Your heart is the reason this story even exists.
Stories, when you think about it, are like that. They speak to your heart. I mean, what man, at some point while watching Braveheart or Gladiator, didn’t want to know that he had what it took to be William Wallace or Maximus? Think of Eowyn and Arwen from The Lord of the Rings, Rose in Titanic, or even Cinderella. Ladies, can you tell me that your hearts are not drawn to these women in one way or another? Stories of courage and rescue, intimacy and love, strength and beauty; these all resonate within our hearts.
Jesus knew this. He knew that if He just showed us stuff, we wouldn’t get it. If He just sat down and told us a bunch of facts, there would be no way we would truly understand Him. But if He told us stories . . . ahh, now that’s the way to our hearts. And our hearts, after all, are what He is after.
“This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand’”
(Matthew 13:13)
Central Truth:
Jesus used stories to speak to our hearts. Our lives, also, are a story; each one part of a larger story that God is writing. A story of grace and love, and an epic battle that is underway for our hearts.
DID I MISS SOMETHING?
“For most of us, life feels like a movie we’ve arrived at forty-five minutes late.”
- John Eldredge, Epic
Have you ever done that? Have you ever shown up to a movie once it has already started? I remember my wife and I taking our kids and a couple of their friends to go see the VeggieTales movie The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. We were running a little behind, so she took the kids into the theater while I waited in line to get the snacks. By the time I got into the theater, the movie had started, the Pirates were already off on an adventure, and I didn’t know why.
Our lives feel like that sometimes, don’t they? Like we were dropped into the middle of some story, the adventure has already begun, and we are frantically trying to figure out what’s happening and why. As Frodo and Sam near Mordor in The Lord of the Rings, Sam remarks: “I wonder what sort of tale we’ve fallen into?” Sam realizes that there is a larger story than the one he has always known and that he has been swept up into it. Chances are, you know there’s a larger story too. A story filled with danger and beauty. A story where the hero is willing to do whatever it takes to rescue your heart from the villain who is literally hell-bent on destroying it. Oh yes, your heart is at stake here. Your heart is the reason this story even exists.
Stories, when you think about it, are like that. They speak to your heart. I mean, what man, at some point while watching Braveheart or Gladiator, didn’t want to know that he had what it took to be William Wallace or Maximus? Think of Eowyn and Arwen from The Lord of the Rings, Rose in Titanic, or even Cinderella. Ladies, can you tell me that your hearts are not drawn to these women in one way or another? Stories of courage and rescue, intimacy and love, strength and beauty; these all resonate within our hearts.
Jesus knew this. He knew that if He just showed us stuff, we wouldn’t get it. If He just sat down and told us a bunch of facts, there would be no way we would truly understand Him. But if He told us stories . . . ahh, now that’s the way to our hearts. And our hearts, after all, are what He is after.
how true. just knowing this makes me see how my children just look at me many times, with those blank eyes, as i'm trying to make one of those life lesson moments with them. if i would stop, regroup, and tell a story..............another way i can be like Jesus! now if i only had an ounce of His story telling ability.
ReplyDeleteAnd the cool part is that God knows how my story goes before I do, and He works it for good even when I don't see it coming!
ReplyDeletea "story" is a "picture"....and "they" say that a Picture is worth a thousand "words".... a "picture" does make you "think".....stop and think. Psycologists tell us that if women would "paint a picture" with words.....MEN would understand them more..... Jesus already knew this. ;)
ReplyDelete