Hey Guys.
Sorry it’s been a few days. i hope this finds you warm and with people you love.
At the heart of today is this idea that we’ve been given a gift, and the gift suggests that we are part of a bigger story. Gifts and stories are the same in that we get to choose what we do with them.
Someone hands you a present and then you get to choose: Should i unwrap it?
Should i take it home?
Should i make it part of my life?
Someone tells you a story and you get to take it in and you get to reflect:
Do i believe this story to be true?
Is this story supposed to change me?
Should i carry this with me or should i let it go?
A new friend was asking me some questions about TWLOHA this week, and she asked what’s surprised me the most over the last couple years. i thought for a minute because it’s a good question, and because there’s been a lot of surprises. i told her that the most surprising part has been to see the way people respond to things that are true. We didn’t invent hope or help or community, or the idea that every person has a story and every story matters, but it’s been amazing to see people respond to those ideas. It’s been amazing to see those ideas begin to touch and move and change people.
So here’s the thing with today:
There’s a story and perhaps there’s also a gift. The enormous bold claim of Christmas suggests that God loves us, and that he wants to know us. To say it a different way, it suggests that perhaps we were created to be loved, and created to be known. And the flip-side is that maybe we were made to love and to know as well. It’s a wild mysterious story and if it’s remotely true, then we’re far-less alone and far-more loved than we could ever know.
In this life, we get to make a lot of choices. We don’t get to choose the things that break or haunt or hurt us, but maybe we get to choose how we respond and what we choose to believe in the face of those things. We get to choose to go alone or to let people in. We choose our response to pain.
i was gonna write some other stuff, about redemption and the bigger story, but i think i’ll keep it short instead.
In the face of today, this Christmas, wherever you are and whatever you see, things missing or perfect or broken, take a moment to look through a different lens: God loves you. And if that’s too weird or too much, then i’ll say it how we normally say it: Perhaps you’re more loved than you’ll ever know. And perhaps you are part of a bigger story.
In all of it, our hope is that you might feel encouraged today, that you might feel alive and less alone.
Merry Christmas.
jamie
PS: Go see Slumdog Millionaire. It’s a beautiful film set in India, a love story in the midst of pain. It is an undeniable picture of someone driven by love, and someone refusing to give up on their story, no matter what happens. Go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as well. i saw it a couple weeks ago and you would never believe me if i told you who i sat next to : )
PS2: Came across a great quote in the trailer for Synecdoche, New York: “There are millions of people in the world, and none of those people is an extra. They’re all the leads in their own stories.”