Say hello to Derek. Don't hate him because of his purple fingernails. He's a good brother, recently letting his little sister experiment on him. I promised Derek I wouldn't post this photo on Facebook. I didn't mention anything about this blog though. Why the picture of Derek? Well, he was the catalyst for an important insight that I gained yesterday as we drove the 11 hours or so from Dayton, Tenn. to Opelousas, La.
Derek served as co-pilot of our BFC Opelousas van for the first four hours of our trip and along the way he provided some entertaining ways to keep me alert. Most notably, he offered to read me a story. Since he had seen a copy of "The Hunger Games" sitting on my living room windowsill over the last weeks during our team meetings, he figured this would be a good opportunity to read the book before the movie comes out in soon. To a large degree I agreed with him, but as I thought about it more I worried that someone else in the van who had already read the book would give away parts of the story and ruin the experience of letting it play out naturally. You know those sort of people...the ones that told everyone the ending of The Sixth Sense back in 1998 (if you haven't seen the movie I won't ruin it for you). So I had to decline Derek's offer.
As the miles rolled on, however, I began to think about how we, as humans, are drawn to stories. We want to have someone tell them to us. We want to be surprised, hurt, happy, overjoyed, mellowed, saddened, etc. We search for cathartic experiences, ones where we can live vicariously through the lives of another. Most of all, I'd like to think that we're all looking for a good redemption tale, one that tells a story of one overcoming injustice and incredible odds.
I think the key element in the development of these stories is the uncertainty. We keep reading the book or watching the movie, because we want to know what happens next. The author won't give us all the details at the beginning, and even if he or she would it wouldn't be a story worth reading or watching. The uncertainty keeps us engaged and fully present in the story.
What's interesting is how all that changes when the story becomes personal. When the focus turns to me, I'd much rather know the details beforehand and not be surprised. Most people wouldn't walk up to someone and ask them to give away the ending to a movie they've really wanted to watch, but that's the approach I take a lot of times in consideration of the future. But it's this uncertainty, this looking "through a glass darkly", that is the essence of faith, of waiting and trusting that the story that will unfold before us is much better than anything we could conjure out of our imaginations.
True, there will be pain and discomfort involved, but that's because every good plot involves a healthy dosage of tension. That's the world we live in, and for a story to be relevant it must be true to the reality we live in.
We're here in Opelousas for the next 8 days. At this point we have seen a few of the "chapter titles" of this story, but what actually will happen within those pages is yet to be understood. Hebrews 11:1 might very well become my verse for the trip seems especially pertinent this morning: Now faith is the assurance of things hopes for, the conviction of things not seen."
-Matt
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