Thinking about Plot

Have you ever read (or watched) a frustrating story where the main character won’t accept the love or grace offered to them? If you’re like me, you groan, talk to the character, and question his or her sanity. We all know that happiness, when in our grasp, should be grappled close to us and held really tightly, right? Or maybe some of us just wish that the chance would come our way. 

Well . . . how is God’s grace and His desire to extend it to all of us any different? Here we are with the chance for ultimate joy and satisfaction (everlasting, mind you), yet we repeatedly turn away. It goes back to our motivation, I suppose. We humans tend to want what we cannot have and disdain what we can. When God’s grace through Jesus Christ is offered freely to us (who aren’t worthy, by the way), we tend to believe it is too cheap to accept. Like the character in the story who just cannot be happy because he or she keeps making poor choices, we, too, keep on in our own misery when the cure for it is close enough to possess. We are deluded into believing that our way is the best way and that grace is cheap, but in reality, it cost Jesus’ everything, and He willingly gave it for us. What is keeping you from your eternally happy ending? Is it pride? Is it grief? Is it bitterness? Is it despair? Is it rebellion? (Think about that frustrating character here . . .)

Each of us has a story, and whether we like it or not, God is ultimately the author, thus He is the one writing it. Sometimes we think we are making our own choices—we are the ones in control—but that is a delusion. The choices we make are usually the ones that harm us, as we are creatures living in a fallen world. However, God’s sovereign, overarching story that began at creation is being played out faithfully. He is the one who designed it and laid out the plot with the background, the problem, the crisis, the falling action, and the resolution—all to accomplish His purpose.

Yet we shouldn’t confuse Him (the author) with the villain. The author works to bring the story to the desired conclusion in spite of the characters’ poor choices (sin) and the consequences of them. We are not puppets, but it is God’s story. Proverbs 16:9 speaks to this: “A man’s mind plans his way [as he journeys through life], but the LORD directs his steps and establishes them” (AMP).  I don’t pretend to understand how the sovereignty of God works in conjunction with the will that He has given us, but I do believe that He is God, and if God is not in ultimate control of His creation and the plan He set in motion, then He would not be good and worth following. I do believe that God is good—it is man who has sinned and messed up God’s good creation.

Why am I thinking about all this today? I am so glad you asked! I have been studying Genesis in Sunday school, thinking about Jesus’ return in Tuesday night Bible study, listening to Pastor Derek teach about apostasy, and teaching English literature while designing a class in Bible literature lately. When I see God’s hand in creation and His authorship, I see the story and the plot and the characters, and for once, I am really glad that I know how the story ends! (He wins, by the way, and I get to go live with Him in heaven forever because Jesus blood covers my sins—all of them. Read Revelation if you don’t believe me!) God’s design of the end reads like this according to Philippians 2:8-11: “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (NASB). 

The End (ahhh)