A God-Story, Not a Me-Story

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(February 19, 2012 – Mike Nichols

A GOD-STORY, NOT A ME-STORY

The title of today’s message is a God-Story, Not A Me-Story. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that today we are going to talk about GOD’S STORY IN YOUR LIFE. The story of sin and salvation as given to us by Paul in Romans 3 & 4 is certainly the God’s story in the life of Abraham. In all the stuff going on in Abraham’s life, God was working His story. The result would be an example for all time of how God works His story into our lives. An awareness of God working faith into our lives; working a good relationship with Him into our realities is not just how the Christian life begins, but how it continues.

St. Ignatius [1491—1556] was a Spanish knight, hermit, priest from 1537, theologian; and founder of the Jesuits; from 1522-1524 He wrote his Spiritual Exercises, a 200-page set of prayers, and mental exercises designed to be carried out over a period of 28–30 days. In the first week of the Ignatian Exercises the participant in encouraged to reflect on the story of their life while asking God’s help to recognize signs of His presence through good times and bad. This exercise is sometimes called a “graced history” and falls much in line with 2 Corinthians 3:3 “ You show that you are a letter from Christ, … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts”. You can see where I’m going—today we are going to talk about “graced history”—Abraham’s and yours.

(Mike Nichols)

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