The Power of Your Story: Backstory

As we begin a year focused on what it means to extend the love of God that we've received to those around us, it is fitting that we seek to do so in terms of the story that God is telling. We, as humans, are storied people. We naturally organize the massive amounts of information coming at us, understand the vast history of our experiences, and give meaning to the machinations of the wider world by ordering them into the categories of story.

In doing so, we begin with backstory. Whether from our families of origin, past experiences, our successes and failures, we all have a backstory; something that informs who we are and how we encounter the world. Our backstories also influence who we know God to be. Thus, a common backstory we all share is our story as told through Scripture.

All of our stories begin with God's goodness. God created the world, first and foremost, as good, not as sinful or broken. This impacts how we understand and tell God's story. Now that sin and evil have entered into our world, though, God breaks every barrier in order to bring newness, wholeness, and health into our world through Jesus.

God sees our hurt, knows our pain, and invites us to see our backstories through the lens of His everlasting and enduring love. God wants to redeem our broken lives and send us into the world with a new, healed heart, a portion of His own divine Spirit, and a powerful message: that God wants to redeem, heal, and dwell with others as well.

Awareness of our backstories can help enlighten our present motivations and give us a foundation to address our present pain. Most of all, awareness of our backstories opens our eyes to recognize that the God who loves us has been there all along, inviting us to live anew by living close to Him.

We challenge you to pray honestly to God about your backstory this week. Ask Him to illuminate those moments, instances, and situations that make you who you are. And where there is difficulty or hurt, ask God to be intimately present with you, so that He might heal and redeem your entire story.