A Turning of the Page - Part 2

Here we are, January 7, 2023, and it's what I'm going to be calling the winter spring season for stories from the road. Last week I called what I talked about a turning of the page in this chapter of 2023 in your story, and today it's going to be part two, turning of the page. It's a new chapter of your walking book, whether you know it or not, every day you're writing a page of the 2023 chapter. As I said last time, I love reading, I like writing, I love the smell of leather and must in a library. I believe that here's the heresy part. I believe that number two, Tykonderoga pencils, are on their way back. So there you have it, ah, reading a story, writing a story, what a craft. He was born in 1874 and died in 1936, English writer Gilbert Keith Chesterton, commonly known as G.K. Chesterton, his journalist and author, and well known for his apologetics and biographies and detective fiction, literary, social, political, commentary, modern history. Dale Allquist has this to say about him, a Dale Allquist, a senior fellow of the Chesterton Library at London, but also the president of the Chesterton Society, there's actually society about this guy, in the United States. His words. G.K. Chesterton was the best writer of the 20th century, both here, that's a mouthful. He said something about everything, and he said it better than anybody else. But he was no mere wordsmith, he was very good at expressing himself, but more importantly, he had something very good to express. The reason he was the greatest writer of the 20th century was because he was also the greatest thinker of the 20th century. He was one of the most prolific writers of all time, he wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, five plays, five novels, some 200 short stories, including a popular series, television series, featuring the priest detective, Father Brown. You may have now recognized G.K. Chesterton by that series. In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered, he, Alquist says, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4,000 newspaper essays, including 30 years' worth of weekly columns for the illustrated London news, 13 years of weekly columns for the daily news. He also edited his own newspaper G.K.'s weekly. He talks about essays, Alquist goes on to talk about essays saying, these are not easy to do, to write a good essay, really takes work, and he wrote one every day for 11 years. In all of them, or as funny as they are serious and as readable and rewarding a century after, you've written them, that's quite a prolific person, but it's also an awesome, and I don't use that word very often, an awesome compliment by Alquist. This is what G.K. Chesterton said about a new year. The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul, and a new nose, new feet, a new backbone, new ears and new eyes, unless a man starts a fresh about things Chesterton says, he will certainly do nothing effective. When I think about new, or an unlikely, new moment, there is a story for me that comes to mind. It's the story that some of you would recognize as being from the Gospel of Luke, the 10th chapter, and it's a story that has been dubbed the Good Samaritan, which is a very interesting title, because for the Jewish culture of the day, that would be an oxymoron. I love that word oxymoron, it means two things that don't go together. There is no such thing in their minds as a good Samaritan, because Samaritans were people who were sort of half breed used to be the word, but they had sullied both themselves and the text of the Torah and all of that when they intermarried with the Syrians back 700 years before Jesus, all of that. Anyway, Good Samaritan, this is the story, or this is the account in Luke 10. Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus, teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life? He answered, what's written in God's law? How do you interpret it? He said that you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence, and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself. You say that sounds a little different than the traditional way I heard it. Well this is Eugene Peterson's paraphrase called the message, that you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence, and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself. Good answer said Jesus, do it, and you'll live. Meaning for a loophole, he asked the questioner, and just how would you define neighbor? Jesus answered by telling a story, there you have it, Jesus answered by telling a story. There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, and on the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, went off leaving him half dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him, he angled across to the other side, then a Levite religious man showed up. He also avoided the injured man. A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him, he gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds, then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins, gave them to the innkeeper saying, take good care of him. He costs any more, put it on my bill, I'll pay you on my way back. What do you think Jesus says? What do you think which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by the robbers? The one who treated him kindly, the religion scholar responded, Jesus said, go and do the same. What a story that Samaritan would tell the rest of his years, but more importantly, what a story the wounded man or the innkeeper would tell the rest of their years. Walking books, you are a story, you have a story, and the interesting thing is you are continuing to write one. An Allender is an author who wrote a book called To Be Told, and the subtitle is God invites you to co-author your future. I want to read just a couple of pages in wrapping this up, not full pages, but a couple of quotes from pages that grab this idea that we're talking about here. Most of us have spent more time studying a map to avoid getting lost on a trip than we have studying our life so we'll know how to proceed in the future. His lead up to that was this thought. Everyone has a story, put another way, everyone's life is a story, and you've heard me say that, but most people don't know how to read their life in a way that reveals their story. They miss the deeper meaning in their life and they have little sense of how God has written their story to reveal himself and his own story. I come back to that original statement. Most of us have spent more time studying a map to avoid getting lost on a trip than we have studying our life so we'll know how to proceed into the future. He goes on to say, Allender goes on to say, first God is not merely the creator of our life, he's also the author of our life and he writes each person's life to reveal his divine story. Secondly, neither your life nor mine is a series of random scenes that pile up like shoes in a closet. We don't have to clear out old stories to make room for new ones. Both your story and mine have unique characters, surprising plot twists, central themes, tension and suspense, and deep significance. Each is an intriguing tale and neither is fiction. Our story is truer than any other reality we know. That line, my friends, is a powerful line. Our story is truer than any other reality we know, one more thought from Dan Allender. With the third core issue, things start getting exciting. When I study and understand my life's story, I can then join God as a co-author. This is right at the end in the post script. Your story may seldom make sense to a linear mind, but still it shimmers with a distinct emblem of a creator. Our story is where we find ourselves in every so often God. It is where God hints at himself and invites us to see what can't be clearly seen, that he exists and intends to reward those who earnestly seek Him. And finally, story is also where we find one another. I don't often make book recommendations on this podcast, but I recommend this one to you, Dan Be Allender, to be told God invites you to co-author your future. That's it for now. First episode, if you will, in this new winter spring season of stories from the road. That's it for now. Take full signing off God bless.