“Your lives aren’t small but you’re living them in a small way. … The smallness that you feel comes from within. Live openly and expansively.” (2 Cor. 6:13)
We are all writing a story with our lives. So, how do you feel about your story so far? Does it have enough adventure and romance in it? Have you risked enough? Is your story part of a bigger story?
Some of us are caught up in a small story. We have become self-absorbed—our lives revolve around meeting our own needs.
In Florida, many retired men have organized their lives around hitting a little white ball into a hole in the ground. I like golf, but I wouldn’t want to build my life on a story that small. Some of their wives have organized their lives around shopping for things they don’t need. And you have to ask, isn’t there a better way to live?
We all sense that there is a bigger story. Our modern myths point to it. Good versus evil. People in bondage needing to be set free. You see those themes play out in comic books and in the movies based on them. They make you ask the question, “Isn’t there more?”
The people of Corinth were living a small story and Paul called them out. He told them, “Your lives aren’t small, but you are living them in a small way.”
Our lives are not small.
We have just one life to live. Organize your life around meeting your own needs, and you may lose the plot.
As a senior in college, I was living a relatively small story. Then I heard about a great tragedy occurring in Cambodia. A nation was being put to the knife. Millions were starving or being murdered.
Something had to be done. It was a story being played out half a world away, but God was asking me to be a part of it. So I got on a plane and flew into a future that he alone could define.
And today, all around us, we are not short of injustice. Widows and orphans suffer because no one will come to their rescue. Who will set aside their own small story and take up such a cause? The Bible calls it true religion, but perhaps it can be more readily understood as God’s story of justice and redemption.
Live openly.
So how do we live a bigger story? Paul encourages us to look at a bigger picture and live “openly and expansively.” Openly implies that you decide to get rid of the secrets that keep you bound up inside. Who needs to hear them? Call them up today.
Openly also implies that you take down the barriers you’ve erected. For example, the barriers of self-protection and isolation. Last year, I realized that my life was beginning to feel narrower. I decided to press into community. I began looking for new ways to share.
Openly also implies that you share what God has entrusted to you. Are you better off than most? If you are privileged and have resources flowing into your life, you can either become a stagnant pond or a fountainhead.
Better to decide to be a life-source for others. Why not decide to be more generous in sharing your resources?
And recognize that it’s not just about money. For example, we steward the lives of others too. Parents need to be more generous in sharing their kids with a world that needs their help. Realizing that they may be caught in a small story, young people need to generously invest their lives in a greater purpose than themselves.
