The Hero
Over the past few months, Jess and I have been reading through the Bible together with a chronological reading plan. It has been really good, and we have just gotten to 2 Samuel and the story of David. At this point we have read about people who have had some pretty crazy things happen to them like Samson, Noah, Moses, Joshua, Saul and now David. These narrative stories about people’s lives are the easy part of the reading plan because you get sucked into them and excited about what will happen next. There could easily be movies made about the life of Joseph, or the conquests of Joshua, and there is an entertainment value to their lives that make reading about them fun.
And that is one of the troubles with reading these stories. The story of Moses is not primarily about his great faith just like the story of Joshua is not primarily about how he took the land for his people. Each and every story in the Bible is a story about GOD! The story of David is not about a great king, the story of David is about GOD’s faithfulness to keep His covenant and to lead His people. The story of Moses is about how GOD worked through Moses to bring the Israelites to a new land and how He loved them even when they turned away from Him. You consistently see 1 hero in every Biblical story, and it is not the hero we think it is…
Every story that we read has one central person, 1 Hero, and that person is always GOD.
Which brings us to the story of our life. So many times we begin to think that our story is primarily about us. “I” need this, the whole world is against “me,” “I” need to rescue other people from their plight, “I” need to lead people, “I” need to save people from whatever it is that they are doing. But this is never the case. We get so selfish with our lives that we think the story of the whole world is about “me” and it is just not true. None of us are that important, none of us are so great that we can be anyone’s savior. In fact, we are all born into sin that separates us from the very greatness that we think we deserve, and we all fall into this sin. None of us will ever be perfect and in turn none of us deserve to be the central character, the hero, of any story.
We are exactly what we feared we were…We are sinners in need of a Savior.
But, by the grace of GOD, we do have a Savior! We have someone who rescues us, a hero for our story, a person who can be the lead character and truly deserve the role. We have a GOD who saved us and loves us no matter what. If only we could figure out how to live in light of this, in light of our Savior. My story has one central character, 1 hero, and His name is Jesus. In fact, my story is not even mine, I am just a small time actor in a huge massive story. The story of how GOD created us in His image, He loved us and created us for His glory, we turned away from Him in sin, He continued to love us when we did not deserve it, He sent His Son to save us, and by His grace we are given an eternity in His presence. While that is just a synopsis of the story, the funny thing is I do not see my name in it, and I know that you do not see yours either. We are not the hero, we are not the center, in fact we are barely more than nothing…
Until we are given everything
We understand completely that what we are doing here in Haiti has nothing to do with us. This is GOD’s ministry, it is His nation, and we are His people. There are, however, times when it is difficult to remember whose story this truly is. Things can get so busy and so hectic that you don’t always remember that GOD is in control, that He is our Savior, and that He is the hero of our story. But that’s how we were created. When our kids start to act silly during worship, I sometimes ask them who they are here to worship. I ask, “Are you here to worship GOD or so that other people will worship you?” And isn’t this a great question for all of us to ask ourselves…
Are we here to worship GOD or to worship ourselves?
As you have read our story and all of the wonderful things that GOD has done for and through All Things New, please do not forget and please help us not to forget that this is not the story of Apolon, Herbison, Fedeline, Gladine, or any of our children. This is not the story of Matt and Jessica Bush or the story of our sponsors and supporters in the states. This is the story of GOD. He is the central character, and He is the hero, and if he wasn’t we would be in a terrible place…We would be sinners without a Savior…But by the grace of GOD we have become children of GOD for eternity.