Ed Welch » Worship Heart Gospel Counseling Sin

We are complicated people. If we follow Jesus, the story of our lives has been forever changed—his story becomes our own.

That’s what happens when we cast our allegiance with him. But sometimes the new story is superimposed on the old story instead of replacing it. We end up living out a mash-up of two different stories: the new “in Christ” story and the old “before Christ” story.

 

Your DNA is not your destiny

A good friend got me thinking about this dichotomy. He loves Jesus, does lots of ministry, is married, and he has been more flirtatious than most men, which, to his credit, he always confesses. And his father was a serial philanderer who abandoned him when he was eleven.

We were talking about a flirtatious episode when we both noticed that he spoke like a fortune-teller: “I’m afraid that one day I will be unfaithful to my wife.”

Beneath the genuine gospel story in his life was another: biology is destiny. He was the son of his father, which meant, in his undercover script, he had heavily tainted DNA. He was two personalities in one.

 

Sinful instincts are smaller than God

Once the old story was exposed, we could trounce it, at least for now, and re-affirm that we both had a heavenly Father, we were joined to him by blood, and our Father was making us like himself.

If we follow Jesus, the story of our lives has been forever changed—his story becomes our own.

Then I started thinking: what competing scripts do I have?

Most of my stories aren’t so much shaped by my past as they are by my own sinful instincts. My personal preference follows the lines from an old SNL sketch by a now-U.S. senator: “I am just a fool. I don’t know what I’m doing… they’re gonna cancel the show… I’m gonna die homeless and penniless and twenty pounds overweight." It’s a bit juvenile, but I can still hear it.

 

Your identity isn’t in the old story

Are there multiple story lines in your own life?

If you grew up in a home with events such as divorce, a parent’s secret life, abuse, drunkenness, or suicide, these old stories can influence you more than you think. If the tone was favoritism, criticism, or anger, check for a controlling storyline from your past. Or if you experienced the easy road of prosperity and were shielded from the troubles of life, you might have a story that suggests entitlement: “my Father would never let me go through hardships.”

We all have these stories that aim to become our master story. Our goal is to leave only one story standing—this is the master story.

 

The only story that matters

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13–14).

This is the story that subverts all others.

For more on replacing your story with God's, check out Redemption by Mike Wilkerson

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