God will meet you where you are in order to take you where he wants you to go. —Tony Evans
Common to all the stories we love to tell, the hero or heroine must take a journey. A journey forward, outward into the unknown, yet also back, inward into the all too familiar. Whatever other destiny the story may entail, the adventurer always is in pursuit of one vital thing that has been lost: themselves.
Whether in galaxies far, far away, or in the dirt streets of Dodge City, or in a land of old with its castles and Round Table, the battle between good and evil can be told in a hundred different settings, but the characters, the hearts caught up in such stories, are always finding their way to who they truly are and what they have it in themselves to become, and to a greater destiny that is waiting to find them. Courage and hope are always required for epic journeys, for without those qualities, characters stay at home amid the familiar and comfortable—and, sadly, they just stay the same. Every character, every image bearer, is playing a part in the Larger Story. Just one person can sabotage your own part by underestimating it, and that’s you.
There is a good reason why you underestimate who you are and your significant role in the story God is unfolding. Jesus made this clear when he spoke of a thief who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). You bear God’s image. Your heart is the treasure of the kingdom. And your heart has been under siege from the day you arrived, the day God ordained for your life to be written into the Larger Story.
