Insights

The Big Story

The most excellent story ever told begins in Genesis 1:1 with In the Beginning. God has told us an excellent story, cast us in an excellent story and woven a love of story into our hearts. Whether we realize it or not, we are drawn to and driven by narrative. Each of us is living out a story. Parents, teachers and other leaders serve children well when they help children discover their place in God’s story.

“From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is telling us about the reign and rule of God. This is the Big Story of the Bible, the purpose for which it was written.” Jen Wilkin, author of Women of the Word

An understanding of God’s Big Story comes through correct interpretation of the many smaller stories that create the narrative from Genesis to Revelation, from Creation to the fall through redemption and restoration. For example, if one doesn’t get past the creation story with an understanding of God as creator of it all, the rest of the story is hard to comprehend. Similarly, each of us live out the big story of our lives through everyday smaller stories. Interpretation of those small stories will shape our view of our big story, and God’s Bigger Story. “The story we believe is the story we live out.” John Mark Comer, author of Practicing the Way

Storytelling has been around as long as humankind has been around. It is a part of every culture. God is a master storyteller. He is also the author of our excellent stories. Unfortunately, many of us live out narratives that are not true to the story God has written over our lives. We misunderstand who the villain is and who the hero is. We get caught up in small unimportant narratives and fail to play our part in the Big Story. We misinterpret small stories and rewrite the truth.

Every human being tells themselves a story. We weave stories to make our world and our lives make sense. Stories provide meaning, helping us find purpose. The story is what you believe in yourself, the world, and God. We must pick our stories carefully because they determine who we are. We must all be intentional about the narratives we are shaping for ourselves and our children.  In his book How to Know a Person, David Brooks makes the claim that therapists are essentially just story editors. This year, we want to get our story right and help our students do the same.

There will be opportunities to be caught up in less than excellent stories. We can allow political, social, and economic narratives to improperly focus our story. We can allow social media and the news to inform our stories instead of the Word of God. We can allow negativity to shape our thoughts and thereby shape our story. We can give ourselves permission to focus on the world’s story instead of God’s Story. But as John Eldredge reminds us in his book Resilient, “The story of God, the story of Jesus Christ has been, is now, and always will be the story of the world.”

At Parent Recharge, Keynote Speaker Pat Connor shared three responsibilities parents have in helping their children find their way in God’s Excellent Story:

Help your child know God. 
Know your child. 
Help your child know himself.

Let’s all work together to tell an excellent story, insist that our children know the things of God, and that we know our children well enough to help them learn to know themselves.

It’s going to be an EXCELLENT year at Logos Prep and I am thankful to be living it out with you and your children.

Revelation 22:13 ESV
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Book Recommendations:
Epic by John Eldredge
    Great book to read as a family!
Resilient: Restoring your Weary Soul in These Turbulent Times by John Eldredge
Freedom in His Story by Ellen Schuknecht
Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer
How To Know A Person by David Brooks

We were also given the gift of many copies of Carrie Sheffield’s Motorhome Prophecies. The giver based the number of books given on the number of students we have in high school. Therefore, any family with a high school student may come to the DEN at the 59 Campus to receive a copy, or have their high school student pop in to pick one up. The memoir is Carrie Sheffield’s story which takes the reader through her difficult childhood under an abusive father, who used religion as his motivator, to the point of her true conversion to Christ.  While written from a Christian perspective,  the book does contain challenging storylines and some foul language.

Tammy McIlvoy
Head of School
Logos Preparatory Academy