I love to tell stories. As soon as something happens to me or if I witness something, I am inwardly figuring out how to narrate it as a story. Doesn’t everyone do this?
But of late, I’ve realized that most of the stories I tell myself about the unknown are terrible. The Holy Spirit has been nudging me to recognize this. It’s been a lifelong habit, so thoroughly ingrained that it feels a part of my skin.
Travel plans coming up? It’ll probably be the last trip we take. Some disaster on the road will take our lives.
Medical appointment? There’s always a chance that it’s cancer. Or some other awful disease.
Concern about a loved one? Worst case scenarios (WCS) multiply almost without effort.
Could it go wrong? It will go wrong.
Someone didn’t reply to my text? I might have offended them. Or perhaps something horrible happened to them.
I’ve gotten better about catching WCS’s before I’m planning funerals in my head. Yet it wasn’t until I began to see these as bad stories that I started identifying them right away for what they are. As soon as one of these obnoxious thoughts worms its way into my brain, I call it out: “That’s a bad story and I will not tell it. I repent of it.”
It requires repentance because my bad stories also tell something about the way I view God and the stories He tells. Unlike me, God is a perfect story teller. If the “worst” happens, it’s part of some good story that He’s telling, even if I can’t see it. (One need look no further than Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection for proof.) Until and unless it happens, I’m just making stuff up and letting it scare me, and making the Lord out to be a constant purveyor of doom in the process. I’ve been at this a long time and I can assure you that I’ve been a very poor “prophet.” None of the things I’ve predicted have come to pass. And the hard providences that the Lord has sent my way weren’t things I predicted anyway.
So, I’m putting the new message on repeat: “That’s a bad story and I will not tell it. I repent of it.”
Worst Case Blog Scenario: I’ll have to delete this in the morning.
Lynniebeemuseoday 