Alex (00:04.318)
We're in our season seven of Story Matters, and today we're gonna talk about your story and God's story. So we've already talked about the elements of God's story, and we wanna bring in a little bit more of how that touches our lives. Like, how do we orient to where we are in God's story? Because most of what we have been wanting our listeners to understand is, one, that God has a big story,
within the bigger story of God's story and that we want to learn how to orient ourselves to the truths of God's story and orient our lives around the truths of God's story. So in order to do that we have to know where we are, how do we fit. So Brenda we're gonna do a little quick review maybe you could go over the five parts of the grand narrative to get us started.
Brenda (00:56.186)
Ah!
You're gonna put that in my lap, huh? I'm kidding. Okay, so yeah, we started with Prologue, Alex, and the Prologue is, of course, the story before the story. And we really orient toward the Prologue because it tells us the story before the story, but it also tells us who's in charge of the story, the author of the story, so that orients us toward truth. And then we talked about creation, which is about our formation, who am I, and why do I exist. The third part of the story is the fall part.
Alex (00:58.387)
Yeah.
Brenda (01:26.78)
of course, that's where we get into our sin and suffering stories. And then redemption is, you know, who is going to save us from the sin and suffering that we are enduring and what resources are there to get us out of this mess that we find ourselves in. And then finally, the last part of the story is the best part of the story, save the best for last, and that's the story of restoration. And that's the part of our ultimate hope where all wrongs are made right,
I think it's maybe Tim Keller that says like all the bad in a sense becomes untrue kind of like a nightmare. And so yeah, and I am one of the things I really love about the grand narrative is just how we begin to see and we're gonna be looking at and giving examples moving forward how we see the pattern of God's story is a pattern for our own stories like our story maps on to his story. And that's just gonna be really I think cool for people to see I know it was really
Alex (02:02.605)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (02:26.42)
great for me to see and begin to understand my story in this context. But to your point, we need to ask, you know, where are we in the story? We need to locate ourselves. You've heard in real estate, the biggest thing is location, location. And so we do, we need to locate ourselves in the story. And we call this the now and not yet.
Alex (02:39.715)
Hmm hmm hmm.
Alex (02:47.158)
So before we get to now and not yet, I wanna share with you something that happened this weekend. I taught the grand narrative to a group of college students and most of them had never heard this information before. And that's always fun for me.
And as we began to interact with it, they came up with this metaphor that I really like. They said that the, we talked about how we grow up learning Bible stories outside of a context. We just learn these different Bible stories. Sometimes we don't even learn them in order. And we don't know how they fit in history, like the history of the world. And we definitely don't have a concept that there's a bigger narrative that is going through all of scripture.
that there or they said I can't take credit for this is Millennials and Gen Z so that's why I like it they said oh that's like the episodes of a show that you watch on Netflix the stories you learn and that those episodes take place within seasons which is like the creation fall redemption part of the story and so we can fit the episodes in the right season and then the show is God's big story like that's the name of the show that's the overarching idea
Brenda (03:39.547)
Thank you.
Brenda (03:44.825)
Mm, yeah.
Brenda (03:52.686)
Hmm.
Alex (04:02.044)
of what we're doing. And I just love that idea of like we're watching, this is a big show that's taking place in different seasons and we know the story through different episodes. And I never would have thought of that example because I don't think like a millennial or a Gen Z. But it really connected to them and it made it make sense to them.
Brenda (04:05.907)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (04:19.733)
Yeah, that is...
Brenda (04:23.882)
Yeah, that's great. I love it. Well, good. So now we're back to the question of where we are in God's story and living in the now and the not yet and what that means.
Alex (04:35.242)
So today's gonna be a little bit hard for me because the way that I teach this, I think even the way you teach it Brenda, like we draw it. And I was taught that through two women from an organization called Para Kaleo, and that's Tammy Rash and Sherry Thomas. And so I feel like I'm looking at their drawing as I speak and we draw four boxes that are connected and we put the prologue with an infinity sign before and after, because God exists before.
sense of time began and then creation, fall, redemption, restoration each have their own rectangle and when we come down what we say is we live in the now and not yet which means that I draw a line at the beginning of the fall meaning we live after the fall we know that Adam and Eve fell into sin we know that the whole world has been pledged into death and decay but we live also in light of redemption we know that Jesus has come and that means that we taste
that Jesus has purchased but we don't get to taste all of it until the final restoration. So some people call this the already and the not yet, what we already get to experience but we have not yet experienced the fullness of redemption. Some people call it the now and the not yet and I think that this is it's again a great way for us to orient where are we in the story and the idea of the now
Alex (06:05.076)
orienting idea of because we know that we know instinctively the experience of living in the now and the not yet and so we're gonna unpack that a little bit.
Brenda (06:15.998)
Yeah, and I think what's really important is that we know the end of the story when we look at the grand narrative and we map our lives onto it, which is the one thing that gives us so much true hope in the midst of our stories and particularly the hard part. When we look at Revelation, we see that God is going to, you know, wipe away the tears. We're going to be living with him forever. There's not going to be any more pain or suffering. And I love this. I've read this definition of restoration that I really
Alex (06:29.572)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (06:46.232)
and this is that last part of the story, is to receive back more than has been lost to the point where the final state is greater than the original condition. And so the main point is that someone or something is improved beyond measure. And going back to your point that we taste this a little bit, as we're growing in Christ we are becoming better, right? We're becoming better
Alex (06:50.591)
Hmm.
Alex (06:54.977)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (07:08.772)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (07:15.812)
relationships are becoming sweeter. And so we have this little bit of taste of glory divine. And the Lord is so sweet, He gives that to us even in creation. If you've been to the beach or the Grand Canyon and we begin to see even the wonders of creation, how that draws our eye toward, you know, when the new heavens and the new earth appear and there won't be trash on the road on our way to these great sites, right? They won't be destroyed by natural
Alex (07:18.186)
Hmm.
Alex (07:23.849)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (07:42.672)
Hehehehehehe
Brenda (07:46.192)
the wonders of the world will still be there. And so I think just an important part, I mean, hope is so foundational for our ability to make it through this fallen world and to not grow discouraged and hopeless and depressed along the way. And so, yeah, so we talk about how there's a lot of tensions we hold in this place. If we're between, you know, our earthly citizenship
Alex (07:46.902)
Ha ha.
Alex (07:59.912)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (08:10.692)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (08:16.933)
which is really what we have, then we have some tensions we need to deal with.
Alex (08:17.096)
Right.
Alex (08:24.015)
Mm-hmm.
And I think the one that speaks to me clearest from scripture is when Paul says, we're sorrowful yet we're always rejoicing. And I think that's just such a great statement to me of the emotional tension that we live in of we are rejoicing when as we taste these bits of what their final restoration is going to be like, but we are still sorrowing because there is still a lot of pain and suffering and sin in this world.
and that is going to cause us to feel emotions that conflict with each other even maybe about a particular person, about a particular circumstance or event in our lives and so we call that tension of holding those contradictory emotions ambivalence and what I think is interesting about ambivalence is that when we feel that ambivalence and we can't resolve that tension we can't say
Alex (09:25.54)
black, this is all white, this is all evil, this is all wonderful. Like when we have to hold that tension, we actually experience a lot of shame. Like we feel like something is wrong with us that we can't resolve the tension. And yet, I think if we can really embrace the concept of living in the now and the not yet, orienting to where we live in God's story, we begin to see that we as Christians actually have a paradigm that explains to us
tension is not going to be solved. It is going to feel like the most joyful experience you have on this earth is threaded through still with sorrow. It is going to feel like in the midst of your deepest sorrow you still see some glimmers of hope and light and so we have an explanation. We have a story that explains why we can hold that tension.
Brenda (10:22.694)
As you were talking, I was just thinking about how Jesus gives us this example so well, Alex, because we know that in the garden, as He faces the cross, He is in physical distress, He is in anguish of soul. But then the scripture says, for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. And I just love this idea that we can see our Savior. He lived in the now and not yet. He experienced the fall. I mean, He experienced it more deeply than we did because He actually
Alex (10:27.642)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (10:52.728)
the fall. We came from our mother's womb, you know, already in sin. So, you know, when I think about that and even when I think about Jesus's ability to really have empathy and compassion in our plight of living in the now and not yet, we see other pictures, I think, throughout the gospel when Lazarus dies and him weeping over Jerusalem. I mean, Christ knew what was coming. He knew the end of the story. He knew it. But it didn't change the fact that as he was
Alex (10:52.926)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (11:10.562)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (11:22.448)
There was, like you said, there was maybe this ambivalence of holding this tension between I know how the story ends, I know I will redeem my people, I know that I'm going to take these people home with me one day, but man, the journey there is so hard and so sad, and I'm having to experience and watch it all around me.
Alex (11:41.398)
And I think we need to also remember that he also held the joy, like from the beginning of his ministry at the wedding in Canaan, he is holding the joy, or Canaan, he is holding the joy and he's being able to say to Mary, it's just not my time, like he knew from the beginning of his ministry and yet he is still engaging in celebration. So it's not like we hold ourselves away from celebration because he was a man of sorrows, he was acquainted with grief, but we see him enter into places of celebration over and over again.
Brenda (12:00.566)
Yeah.
Alex (12:11.432)
And so I think again like Jesus, he shows us how to do it and he comforts us in knowing that we don't again we don't have to resolve that tension. We can sit right there and knowing like this is wonderful and this is really hard.
Brenda (12:28.702)
Yeah, I think I heard somebody say that I've read somewhere that Jesus talks more about feasting than fasting. And so I've heard him called Jesus of the party, you know, because to your point, he did know how to celebrate good things. And that is an important part of our story to remember because we can get really caught in the bad parts of our story and really stuck there.
Alex (12:37.731)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (12:45.064)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So Brenda, when I draw this and I draw this kind of shape, I don't know what this is, but two slanted sides coming down from the fall in redemption, I draw a path and I put a little stick figure on and let me just tell you how amazing my artwork is.
Brenda (13:09.898)
Hehehehehehehehe
Alex (13:11.51)
I think I'm going to draw this and make it available and you all will get to experience the beauty of my artistic ability. Yeah.
Brenda (13:15.422)
Yes, yes. We could put, maybe we could do a little video, Alex, actually, of the drawing would be really good, of you actually drawing it out and explaining it. I think that'd be really helpful for our listeners.
Alex (13:25.686)
I do think it's good for people to see how little artistic ability I have so I can normalize it for others. That's really why I'm here. But I love to draw this path and put a stick figure on the journey and remind people that their journey has taken place within the bigger story and the bigger story is kind of above them. And the first thing I always remind them is that means that we have to always be looking up. And when I say look up, I mean that metaphorically of like, we have to look up.
Brenda (13:28.846)
I'm sorry.
Brenda (13:33.358)
Ha ha ha.
Alex (13:55.6)
up to the fact that we can get stuck in our own story and think this is all there is and that God's story is always playing out. There's always a bigger context through which we have to interpret our story. And then I also like for people to draw, they look like little speed bumps, but I call them milestones. And this is the idea like when God in the Old
Alex (14:26.1)
and future generations of God's faithfulness in meeting them in difficulty and also again I think to remind them that they're part of a bigger story that he's got a plan that he is working out and it's not just what they see and experience and so they build altars so on our drawing we draw these little milestones and these milestone events can be things that are experienced positively or negatively they're just things that shape your life
deeply personal. Maybe a milestone event to you isn't something that someone else would consider a milestone event, like a significant move, but you know in your life when you move from one place to the other things really changed for you in your relationships and you know in your experiences. And so it's kind of fun for people to take a little bit of time and remember those milestone events in their lives in the context of God's big story.
Brenda (15:24.746)
Yes, and I think one of the things that's missing oftentimes from our Christian walk is reflection.
Alex (15:31.513)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (15:32.354)
Sometimes we're missing God along the way because we've not stopped to reflect and we're anxious about the future because we've not stopped to reflect. And so I think it's a beautiful exercise of reflection in light of the grand narrative, in light of God's big story. And we wanted to take some time this morning or this, gosh, I guess, yes, we're recording in the morning, to talk about Joseph's story and to look at some of the milestones on his journey
Alex (15:46.972)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (16:02.128)
the grand narrative. And so the first place we want to look at is his prologue, which again is that idea of the story before the story and then the truth orientation, you know, where is he oriented in the story. And for Joseph, his great-grandfather's Abraham. You know, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, he's a father, he's a son of Jacob. And so his prologue would be remembering his forefathers, remembering the covenant promise that's been handed down to him.
Alex (16:18.314)
Hmm.
Alex (16:31.563)
Hmm.
Brenda (16:31.888)
This is the beginning of the story, the story that he is born into, you might say, and begins to direct the rest of his life.
Alex (16:37.721)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and then his creation story kind of flows out of that because he's in a family with 12 boys 12 brothers and he's a favorite of his father's because his father loves his mother and that Creation story definitely shapes that family of origin definitely shapes Joseph's story And it's gonna shape this particular part of Joseph's story that we're gonna talk about
Brenda (17:08.875)
And I was even thinking about how his creation story would have included so much spiritual instruction.
Alex (17:17.507)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (17:18.114)
You know, there would have been a lot of training and talking and thinking in the ways of God as a part of His creation story. So that's going to be interesting as we see Him move through the story and the next part of that story being His fall story, His sin and suffering story. And we know at the beginning of His young life, He seemed to be rather brash and arrogant, right? Like He came across, I've had these dreams and all of you guys are going to bow down
Alex (17:27.058)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (17:35.798)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (17:44.067)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (17:48.068)
and you know kind of kind of seemed like a spoiled brat I don't you know I don't know but his dad also showed a lot of favoritism toward him as well and then this created a lot of jealousy among the brothers and we might remember that he was sold into slavery and then again you know there's a there's another story within his story of where you know he makes some traction and then he's falsely accused of you know basically behaving improperly with the Pharaoh's
Alex (17:48.394)
Mm. Yeah.
Alex (18:02.193)
Mmm.
Brenda (18:17.968)
And so he's sent to jail and then he has to kind of rise through the ranks again. And so we can just see sort of this pattern of how the fall has impacted and whether it is his own sin or whether it's the sin of other people or being falsely accused. It's a wonderful story because we really see, so God gives us such a great window into how our own sin and then the sins of other people can really seek
us along the way. But for God, right? Because there's the redemption story.
Alex (18:48.586)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah
Yeah, because Joseph really gets to be a Christ figure in this story by the end, in the fact that in the rise and fall from power, when he was in power, he was able to store grain in seasons of a lot of harvest. And so he was able to provide not only for the Egyptian people he was living with, but his family was also able to come back and save them from famine. And
That redemption story kind of climaxes in Genesis 50 when Joseph says to his brothers, you intended to harm me, but God intended to accomplish good. And what is now being done is the saving of many lives. And so there's this beautiful statement of redemption that God was working his plan the entire time through the life of Joseph.
Brenda (19:48.65)
Yeah, and another point of the story that really stands out to me is when he interprets, after he interprets Pharaoh's dreams correctly, both Pharaoh and the servants acknowledge that he has the spirit of wisdom and that there's something different about this guy. And I just think about how the Holy Spirit was leading and guiding him. And when we think about redemption, that's part of what comes with our redemption that is so beautiful. The presence of God, the Holy Spirit now comes to live in us.
Alex (20:00.203)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (20:18.544)
restoration, right? Like we get a little taste of what it's like to walk with God every day, but we're still living in the fall doing that. And I think for Joseph, he gets this little taste of restoration to his family, but it's still been so broken and he's been away from them for years and he's missed, you know, all this time went by, he didn't get to be with his dad, but he does get this little taste of restoration.
Alex (20:20.508)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (20:24.119)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (20:31.294)
Hmm.
Alex (20:42.414)
And then the rest of his taste of restoration we don't know yet but we can imagine that he's experiencing the fullness of restored fellowship with his brothers, fellowship with God, seeing Jesus face to face, the you know seeing the salvation that was promised face to face and that all the promises that were made to Abraham and generations were fulfilled and he knows that now and so
Brenda (21:08.942)
Mmm, wow.
Alex (21:11.208)
think about.
Brenda (21:12.33)
Well, and I just think about how our story then links into other people's story because our story is also linked to the story of Abraham. You know, so our story is also linked to the story of Joseph. And we can kind of go back and that's really cool to me just to think about how when we link when we really understand our link in the chain of God's story, how we really are not only linked forward into restoration, but backwards into what God has done in the past to get us to the place we are now, right?
Alex (21:19.535)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (21:23.491)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (21:38.443)
Mm.
Alex (21:41.544)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (21:42.538)
A great Danish theologian, Soren Kierkegaard said, life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. And it's such a great quote because it's so true. And Paul and I, this weekend, got to go to the Fox Theater in Atlanta and see the play Hamilton. And it was so great. I was just blown away by it. We're told it was gonna be great. It was really exceeded our expectations. But the whole point of Hamilton is really, it's the story of Alexander Hamilton.
Alex (21:51.334)
That's a great quote. Mm-hmm.
Alex (22:01.018)
Yeah.
Alex (22:07.762)
Hmm.
Brenda (22:11.952)
but it's looking at America past through America present. So it's kind of this idea like understanding Hamilton's life. And of course it's done in an amazing way with all minority cast and it's set to R&B and rap and just very, just done so well, just the brilliance of the writer and the composer of all this. But my point being that we can understand so much more about Alexander Hamilton
right, and his life, and it really, his life ended very tragically, but we can understand the impact he had more as we look back.
Alex (22:45.789)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (22:49.194)
Yeah.
Brenda (22:49.258)
And we can see both more clearly, if you will, the parts of his life that were really good, because America wouldn't be America without Alexander Hamilton. He was incredible. He just did so many things to make us who we are. And yet there was also a lot of self-admission and an adulterous affair and, you know, suffering. His son gets murdered. And the way he dies is in this really crazy duel. Dueling was a real big thing back there for a man's honor. So to keep his own honor, he gets in this duel and he gets shot and killed.
Alex (22:57.486)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (23:14.401)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (23:18.716)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (23:18.952)
So all that just to say though that again, there's just this idea that we need to stop and look at these memorial stones if we're really going to understand our life and our life in light of a bigger story and a bigger picture.
Alex (23:33.361)
Yeah.
Yeah, one of the things that I like for people to do when they draw these milestones in their lives is to leave a space and be able to put a cross kind of inside each one. Because it just reminds us again that as we understand our lives backwards and as we look back, is sometimes the only time we can see that God was there with us. That He promises not to leave us or forsake us. In the moment of the experience, it can feel like He has, and it's often only when we're looking back on it
we really realized that he was there and he was working a plan. And I think that also helps because I have people leave some blank, some blank milestones moving forward and I ask them to put crosses in there to remember like that he's going to do the same thing in the future that like we have to look back on our past in order to build our faith for what's coming for the future and that's why this remembering is so important.
Brenda (24:31.822)
I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to do this.
think when we talk about counseling conversations and how we can really encourage people, this is really key. Because there's things in my story I can use. If I understand, if I've seen God's faithfulness in my own life and the hardest parts of my story, then I'm gonna be more equipped and prepared to share with you about my even my own personal experience. Like that idea if you can borrow from my faith, because I have seen God's faithfulness. But also to have your
Alex (24:41.098)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (24:56.303)
Right.
Brenda (25:03.312)
altars that you can look back and say, at that time, I didn't see God. But wow. And so many of those times, Alex, or times that even in the hardest times, we'd say, I wouldn't change it. I wouldn't change it. Now that I know what God knows, right, because I can look back, I wouldn't change it.
Alex (25:09.258)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (25:15.376)
Right.
Brenda (25:21.482)
So I think we can just see, you know, we think about the life, the pattern of Jesus's life. We've talked about the pattern of Joseph's life. We see this pattern in our life as well. The rhythm of life is really life and then death comes to us and then resurrection or newness of life. And we kind of just go up and down in this rhythm throughout our lives because we are in the now and not yet. There's the good and there's the bad. And there's all the stuff that happens in between. And, you know, it's important for us to have this big review of our own life.
Alex (25:21.493)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (25:43.555)
Right?
Brenda (25:51.836)
especially when we feel really stuck in a part of our story that's hard.
Alex (25:55.35)
Mm-hmm.
Brenda (25:57.654)
You know, I know for me, if my story is only as big as me, well, there are times in my stories, if I took a snapshot of that, man, there's every reason to be hopeless and to be undone. Especially as I look around, either where I'm stuck in my own sin or people in circumstances that are really hurting me. But if my story is bigger than me, and it is, right? And if it's connected to something so much bigger that God is doing,
Alex (26:09.698)
Mm-hmm.
Alex (26:22.944)
Hehehehehe
Brenda (26:27.708)
so much potential and so much hope for what God is up to. And you know, we can just be confident that He's using all these milestone moments to weave together what is truly a beautiful story as we look at that whole tapestry of our lives and not just that single snapshot.
Alex (26:46.083)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
That's really good. I hope that today helps people begin to see and orient to where they are in God's story. We've kinda come on a journey so far where we've talked about God's big story and what that means. And then we talked to Adam and we just talked about the importance of story, the importance of knowing God's big story. And then today we just wanted people to be able to orient to where am I in this story? What does that mean that I live in the now and the not yet?
began to see my life in light of God's big story. One of the things we promise is that we'll do a video and give a handout with my beautiful artwork and we will make that available. The other thing that we thought might be good is if people aren't familiar with the story of Joseph to go back through that. Maybe check out if the Bible Project or some others have a good summary of Joseph's story. And then I also just think because we're just
good stories follow the kind of the arc of God's big story. Like it's really is a fun thing to be able to watch movies or read books where we can look at other stories. So just begin to look at your own life and then think about other stories in the Bible or that you encounter and think about God's big story. So I hope that'll be some fun things where people can begin to see
Alex (28:17.928)
to make very practical and we want to bring down to where we live today.
Brenda (28:23.038)
Absolutely. All right, Alex, thank you. I've enjoyed this time today and I think that's all we have.