There is a ridiculous YouTube video my daughters find hilarious showing this rather large dog determined not to get into the bathtub. In fact, he refused to even go into the bathroom. Further still, he wouldn’t even stand up knowing he was going to be taken to the bathroom to be given a bath. His owners had to drag him, total dead weight, cooked noodle all the way down the hall and through the bathroom door. Dogs these days.
Admittedly, I laughed just as loud as they did at the dog’s crazy antics. In a similar vein, I am that dog when it’s come to having my own blog. I’m not new to the world of writing or blogging. I’ve done both for several years, but when it’s come to taking on a blog in my own name, on my own schedule, and from my own heart I’ve gone all cooked noodle. In fact, I can think of 103 reasons why I don’t want a blog. So, why now? Why when there are so many others great writers and communicators out there sharing their perspectives and experiences in the world of blogging? It’s because all 103 of those naysayers in my head crumbled when I understood the power of narrative.
We’re living a story within a greater story. Our narratives, our stories, are not isolated events occurring in insulated bubbles floating freely from one moment to the next. We live in tangled, intertwined, messy knots of relationships and circumstances. When I pull on one string, it tugs on someone else’s. If I wind up my chord, it’s unwinding someone’s down the line. Our yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows share common experiences, hopes, dreams, and fears.
I picture this life like a neatly knit sweater with a determined unraveling thread. Unraveling isn’t an option, it’s a way of life. It’s the way of life. We’re dying to make our sweaters of this world fit even as God is unraveling it for a greater, eternal purpose. He tells us not to fear, to exercise courage, and to steady our eyes on Him as he graciously and lovingly unravels us in this world to prepare us for perfection in the next. We can’t have our sweater of this world and our heavenly one too. It’s one or the other. If I try to cling to this one I end up holding a mess of string because the truth of this chronos life is that there is purpose in the unraveling. Wearing our sweaters of this world can be great for a time, but eventually what was once good will become a trap to keep you from what’s best. God is for our ultimate freedom, our ultimate best. As we unravel grace abounds and Love calls us out of what binds us and into new depths of freedom with Him. This blog is my written narrative to gain and give perspective to this unraveling life. Sometimes I focus on my current sweater, sometimes I can’t take my eyes off the pulling thread, and other days I’ve got sights locked on my promised eternal creation. It all points to Jesus, and it’s a joy to share His story in me with you.
jena meyerpeter 