Applying God to the story of my life?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the story my life will tell this Centenary Year. It’s not, of course, a story I want others to hear or see necessarily. It’s between me and God. Others can know about it, it just isn’t about other people.Cheryl has been thinking about it too. So have others I’ve been speaking to.I use what I know of God from reading the bible for a fair while. I want my story to “apply” what I already have learned and know of God. Most of what Jesus says, I find is pretty simple – go and love your neighbour – but I can’t stand my neighbour OR you don’t know how busy I am OR ……. – it’s mostly simple, but it’s hard to do. That’s why people get angry with Jesus. We don’t want to do what he says that we can’t confuse or explain away.Why don’t I want to do what Jesus says that’s unmistakable?Someone sent me this quote from Rick Warren this week: “Fear doesn’t listen to logic. You must move against it in faith. DO what you fear & the panic will subside”. I often sabotage my story with fear. I often complicate things coz I’m scared to do what I know I should. There are other reasons, like pride, but fear underlies a lot of stuff.It’s things like these that will muck up the “good story” I want to live this year. The prophets spoke about the little foxes that spoil the grape harvest. The little things that erode the good story we want to live are in every; “it’s too hard”, “I’m too busy”, “I’m too powerless”, “too old”, “too ill”, “too scared”, “too full of myself”!Have you ever noticed yourself hosing down other people’s enthusiasm? “Ah, yes, that’s very well BUT…..”. That’s what they did to Jesus. “Yes, but isn’t he Joseph’s son?” “Yes, but he’s from Nazareth, what good could come from there?”I’m going to have to have some resolve to live God’s story for me. Others my try and derail it.Now, I don’t want you to get this wrong!A good story is not some triumphalist, look at me, high bar thing. Many of us really are “too overwhelmed”, “too busy”, “too ill”, “too powerless” , “too old – or young”, “too scared” and “too full of ourselves”. My hunch is that it’s in those places that God will be working on His story in you and with you; in my Dad’s death that I’ve never processed; in my messed up family or marriage; in the job that bores me witless; in the illness that is just so utterly unfair, in the constant financial juggle.Anyway, it’s just what God has been musing about with me. There are some interesting stories emerging for me. What about you?If you have a story to share send it through to me.In the AdventureMalcolm