Taking every thought captive for obedience to Christ (2 Corinthians 10.5)

Vision
Stories
If you are like many Americans, you are telling yourself a story about your life, in order to make sense of your experience. And that can be a very good thing, indeed.

That, at any rate, is Kat McGowan’s view, as she explains in the 2 May 2016 issue of Aeon (“Silicon phoenix”). Drawing on current psychological studies, Ms. McGowan writes, “Each of us has a story we tell about our own life, a way of structuring the past and fitting events into a coherent narrative.” She continues, “the way we formulate our story moulds who we are.” She adds, “For Americans, the redemption narrative is one of the most common and compelling life stories.”

Well, that’s interesting enough by itself. Americans just can’t seem to get away from needing a story about redemption to make sense out of their lives. However, in the American version, the story runs from suffering and defeat, through recovery and redefinition, to renewed vision, hope, and, hopefully, prosperity. It’s not exactly the creation/fall/redemption/restoration story of the Bible, but you can certainly hear the echoes of it.

Ms. McGowan reports that taking this hope-through-suffering approach to life tends to make people “generative, that is, to be a certain kind of big-hearted, responsible, constructive adult.” This is a story Silicon Valley entrepreneurs in particular have adopted to keep them going through the struggles and set-backs of tech start-ups and competition.

The crucial moment in each such story is referred to as “the pivot.” This is the moment when entrepreneurs admit their current plan is a failure, and set it aside in favor of a new and more hopeful vision. At that moment, “A Phoenix rises from the ashes, a door opens, a new vision emerges from the old.”

In the Christian community, we might call this “pivot” the Kingdom turn, the moment when we stop trying to be Christians on our own terms, admit that that way of believing is a failure, and, through repentance and seeking the Lord, enter the Kingdom of God through full faith in Jesus Christ. Whereupon we begin to nurture a new, fuller, and truer vision of our calling in Christ than we could ever conceive or attain as long as we looked at Jesus as our servant, rather than ourselves as His.

Ms. McGowan explains that these redemption narratives are just stories, and not necessarily actual or full accounts of events; but the story’s the thing, to paraphrase Hamlet. The power of the story has been the ticket to success for many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

That may be so in Silicon Valley and among Americans in general. However, the Kingdom of God, and our calling as citizens and ambassadors therein, is not just a story. It is the defining and guiding reality of all history, and the story to which we have been called as followers of Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 2.12). But if we insist on following Jesus apart from seeking His Kingdom as our highest priority, we’ll never know the transforming power that comes with getting in step with the true story of life.

For many people, the redemption story provides new vision, new hope, and new energy toward a new day. The story doesn’t always work out as hoped; still, much is gained by admitting our failures, retooling our plans, and heading off in a new direction: “It keeps morale high. It fosters grit and perseverance. People who tell these stories tend to be more satisfied and feel their lives are coherent and meaningful.”

Ms. McGowan concludes, “an essential point about the redemption narrative is that, through the telling, it culminates in a genuine desire to improve the world – and in the case of tech, the conviction that it is possible to do so.”

High-tech entrepreneurs envision themselves changing the world. How much more should we, who know and serve the King of glory, and are indwelled by His Holy Spirit, be telling the Kingdom story to ourselves as our story, and to everyone else as the only true story for all of life?

For reflection
1.  Why do you suppose this “redemption” story appeals to so many Americans? Is there an opportunity in this for Christians to help others find redemption in Christ? Explain.

2.  How has the Gospel affected your story?

3.  How would one know whether or not he had made the Kingdom turn?

Next steps: What story do your unsaved friends or co-workers tell themselves? Why not ask them?

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