Save My Story

“Of what use was it to be loved and lose one’s beauty and become Real if it all ended like this?” Margery Williams, Velveteen Rabbit

   Will you sign my petition? I think I’m jumping on the “Save our Shows” bandwagon this year. Those bigwigs at CBS have canceled one of my favorites, East New York. But in case you’re not a TV series connoisseur like me (just kidding) East New York is, I mean was, a TV police series that centers on officers and detectives of the NYPD’s 74^th precinct in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. While it wasn’t a great TV series, it was decent and written much better than some of the others still airing. The last episode ended with a cliffhanger which is now just a cliff.
  Apparently, I’m not the only one bothered that a series was terminated with no ending. TV Q&A columnist, Rich Heldenfels, recently answered this question sent in by a reader: Shouldn’t television producers be required to resolve major questions before a series is removed from viewing? It’s my understanding that the idea of government intervention was batted around forcing producers to come up with satisfactory endings.
  To be honest, I’m not much of a TV watcher and I’m thankful for a DVR so that I can fast-forward commercials. I have a short list of favorites that I watch, usually one at night to give my mind a mental break. It’s been very rare for me to watch a series from the first episode until the end. I get bored and move on. For example, Lost lost me after the first season.  
    While we don’t need to involve the government and a large percentage of TV isn’t worth watching in my opinion, it does bring up something that is part of our design. God designed us so that we’re fascinated and drawn to stories. Even the oldest among us love those familiar words, “Once upon a time.” Our fascination with story is never over. It starts very early in the human experience, right from the time we can crawl up into an adult’s lap to listen to words that we can’t yet comprehend.
  As Christians, we need to understand that a part of that is being made in the image of God. We’re drawn into a story. We find our identity in a storyline and we want that storyline to be satisfactory.
  The problem is and this is where the storyline of God’s Word makes the truth abundantly clear, given the reality of sin, left to ourselves that storyline can be short and nothing other than catastrophic. The big question for all of us is not the beginning of our story but the end of our story. It makes all the difference in what we know and believe and stake our lives on to be the end of the story.
  This is where Christians understand the promise of Scripture, the promise of the gospel that we really do know and can absolutely count upon the fact that the great storyline is going to end in a way that’s completely resolved. There will be a perfect resolution to the story and it’s going to come on what the Bible calls “the day of the Lord,” when God executes justice and when both His justice and mercy are demonstrated in fullness and completeness. It’s as Bible-believers understand, for those who have trusted Christ as their personal Savior, the ones that the New Testament refers to as “the redeemed.”
  There comes the promise of the kingdom of Christ when all wrong is made right. It culminates with a new heaven and a new earth, a new Jerusalem coming down from heaven. The resolution of this is so perfect that as the Bible promises, every eye for believers will be dry with every tear will be wiped away forever. For those who have trusted Christ as their Savior, their story has an ending that’s literally out of this world.
  Recently, I stumbled across this account that in the 1930s, the city of New York built a set of railroad tracks called the High Line that ran out of the meat-packing districts to other parts of the city. Architects and engineers designed the tracks so that they would rise thirty feet above the streets, far above the hustle and bustle and traffic of the city (hence, the name). As you can imagine, the tracks were large, wide, and extensive. In fact, the tracks ran for over a mile. Trains supplied the city with meat, agricultural goods, and mail for nearly fifty years. But those tracks, as with many things, became more and more obsolete with the changes in the city. Ultimately, they went into disrepair and the last trains ran on the line in the 1980s.
  What was the city to do with the tracks after they were broken and without a purpose any longer? Some suggested that the city demolish the High Line. After all, little bits had been destroyed here and there since the 1960s. The city might as well level the whole thing. However, a group in the city had a different idea. They wanted to see the High Line reclaimed.  
  And that’s exactly what happened. Members of the High Line community worked to see the tracks redeemed as something beautiful, as public space. Over the course of a decade, the High Line tracks were created anew into a public park. It is now High Line Park, a 1.5-mile greenway that runs down Manhattan’s West Side. It’s a serene space with trees and gardens, sitting areas, and a walking path. It’s an oasis of resplendence and beauty in the midst of a concrete jungle. It’s a reclamation project that’s been done right.
  The High Line project illustrates our story, the story of redemption. For those who have accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ and salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, incarnate, crucified, resurrected, ascended, and coming again, it’s the greatest story with the greatest ending, an everlasting “happily ever after.” Because of the cross, as promised in John 3:16 (and countless other Scriptures), it can be anyone and everyone’s story – Jesus died to pay for the sins of the world. My friend, is it your story?

Can we help you spiritually? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.