May 28, 2012 by Erin

Prologue

“I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story, there is a story-teller.” – G.K. Chesterton

This is a blog about life. Not just my life, either — though I will warn you up-front that I tend to be pretty darn introspective. This is a blog about life in all its poetic, relational, musical fullness. About coffee and sunsets and books and love and cereal (especially cereal).

I think life makes most sense as a story. We don’t experience it as bullet points, after all. We experience it as narrative. If you think about it, all the elements of a story show up in our everyday experience: character, plot, dialogue, crisis, irony, just to name a few. 

The beautiful thing is that it’s not a story about me. I confess sometimes I act as though it is, and if I were the author it most certainly would be. But I’m not writing this story — God is. From the beginning of time, God has been weaving a tale. It’s a sweeping epic that we get to be part of, and its theme is redeeming love. Everything that’s true or beautiful in the world reflects this story in some way. Take, for example, the typical movement of a Shakespearean play:
Act I — Background and inciting incident.
Act II — Rising action; the conflict mounts.
Act III — Climax, the turning point.
Act IV — Falling action; the conflict continues but moves toward resolution.
Act V — Resolution, in which the hero and possibly several others die (tragedy) OR the hero and possibly several others get married (comedy).

I don’t know about you, but I see all of human history in this structure. Seriously. Here’s how it goes:

Act I — God creates the universe and forms humans from the dust, breathing life itself into us. The Fall is the inciting incident that sets tragic events in motion. Keep in mind that Scripture makes clear that God is the hero, and even now he has a plan.

Act II — Mankind continues to rebel, and it gets pretty ugly. But the Hero launches phase one of his redemption plan, choosing one man and eventually one nation to work through. God shows his steadfast love in the midst of broken history.

Act III — Just when it seems the plan has failed, the Redeemer himself comes into the world. In the irony of all ironies, he sneaks in as a baby and lives life the way we were created to. His death and resurrection are the climax, the point on which the story turns.

Act IV — Though the climax has come, though the work of redemption is sealed, the story isn’t over. God continues to work in and through us, reconciling all of creation to himself. This is where we live — the already/not yet age of the Church. There is still conflict, but now we know where we’re headed.

Act V — Resolution. Culmination. Re-creation. Heaven. At the end of the story, God restores everything. All things are made new and made right. I should mention that this whole crazy tale turns out to be a comedy, because it ends with a wedding (see Revelation 19).

That, in a nutshell, is the story you and I find ourselves in. It is not always pretty or safe, but what good story is? Like I said, I think life makes the most sense when I think of it this way. It’s an adventure, full of danger and hope and laughter and good food and tall mountains. Best of all, it’s a romance. It’s not over yet, and you and I have a part to play.

This, my friends, is what I want to write about. This is life in Act IV. Now that the stage is set, let’s get started. I do hope you’ll come back.