June 2, 2012 by Erin

Character

I have incredible people in my life. One of them is my roommate Kelcie (who, truth be told, was the impetus for this blog). Earlier this week, Kelcie spoke in a chapel service about something God had done in her heart recently. What she shared, though it was beautiful, is not as important as this: it came about because of something someone else said to her. Not only that, but as Kelcie told me about it, I felt Jesus nudging my own heart, showing me what needed to change.

I’ve found that God very often works like this. Through others. Every once in a while I’ll read about an idea that affects me deeply. There have been a few times when I believe I’ve heard directly from God. But, usually, life change happens through relationship. I think God designed it that way. That’s why character is by far the most important element of any story. The personalities, thoughts, and actions of characters not only drive the plot, they’re the medium through which we interact with the story.

Even in Scripture, the story of redemption is told through individual lives. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David. Instead of abstract concepts or overviews of historical epochs, the Bible gives us names. We read anecdotes about people who walked with God, accounts of their conversations with Him and their relationships with others. We’re invited to get to know them and to get to know God.

I’ve realized that, in His pursuit of me, Jesus has been revealing Himself through the people He’s placed in my life. Through them I have learned more than any theology text can teach, and my life has been irreversibly and beautifully changed.

Perhaps this is why the best way I know to talk about who God is and what He does is to talk about my friends. I could probably write a decent little treatise about faithfulness, but I’d rather write about my mom. It would be an injustice to simply relate concepts when I’ve been shown truth primarily through people, with names, whom I’ve been invited to know and who invite me to know God.

It will be my delight to introduce you to some of them in future posts. It’s quite an interesting cast of characters, who keep me laughing and leave me wondering at God’s faithfulness.