Choosing Overstory
There are so many understories in your life.
Think about it. There is the understory of your family of origin. The understory of your educational pursuits. Your marital status. Your children and immediate family. Your extended family. Your education. Your job and career. Your responsibilities. Your relationships. Your finances and bills. Your health. Your emotions. Your, your, your . . . !
The list could go on forever, and it isn’t even a pejorative statement. Your existence has countless understories—important and even intimate understories—constantly running full speed ahead and seemingly in need of your every moment’s attention and care.
Let’s be real—especially as your New Year’s resolutions are freshly written out and posted on the refrigerator: Many of the things listed above should get your attention! Your relationships are valuable and should be cultivated. You should be growing in wisdom and knowledge and stature with God and men (Lk. 2:52). You should be stewarding your finances and caring for your body and mind in recognition they form a temple of the most high God (1 Cor. 6:19). These are real things and real responsibilities from God. They warrant your attention and focus.
Even so, they are understories. That reality does not make them insignificant. In fact, in one of the most astounding aspects of God’s character, He chose to make your understories and mine the building blocks for His overstory! Your understories are important specifically for the reason that they combine with the understories of other Jesus followers to join with the overstory that matters—the story of the One who created you!
Isaiah 43 is my favorite of the many passages that reveal this truth, and I encourage you to spend time meditating on it this week. It contains multiple reminders to not be afraid (vv. 1, 5), affirms you are God’s creation and handiwork (v. 1), and then twice reiterates why you were made:
“[E]veryone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Is. 43:7).
“[T]he people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise” (Is. 43:21).
You were made for God! This amazing reality does the opposite of dismiss the importance of your understory. To the contrary, it sweeps all of your understory up into the magnificence of His all-encompassing overstory!
So it is true you were not made for yourself, and the totality of your purpose is to bring glory to your God. But contrary to being a sacrifice, it is the grandest and most beautiful invitation imaginable for your “small” understories to be aimed at telling the one transcendent overstory that encompasses all of time and space!
I have a prediction to make: Multiple of your understories will present challenges to you today and every day this week. It is a given in this life. Our lives—even the important aspects of them—are often challenging. You will be tempted to be fully consumed and absorbed by those very real understories.
Choose overstory instead! Remember that your understories are actually writing the one big overstory that matters, and in that story, God wins and He reigns! The end of the story is written and the current challenges in your story will be redeemed forever!
So choose overstory! Keep the big story in focus!