We write or tell the story of our life as victors or victims. If we tell our story as the victim, then life is a series of disappointments and trials that have left us discouraged. Somehow in the matrix of the story, our virtue has met an unkind God who failed to bless—who seemed out of the loop when our neck was in one.
If we tell our story as the victor, then life is still a series of disappointments and trials, but they have left us encouraged. In the victor story, the trials are the same, but we see ourselves joined by God who is faithful and true. How can it be that the victim and the victor receive the same life yet experience it so differently? One can see God more clearly than the other.
We are invited in this chapter to shed the false God stories and embrace the God's story of Jesus. Perhaps the preaching series we are in at UA allows us to hear Smith's analysis of the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer tells what we should think about God:
God is near—present.
God is holy—pure.
God rules—powerful.
God cares—provides.
God forgives—pardons.
God rescues—protects.
Jesus gives us a good God narrative. If we allow this Jesus story of God to enter our story, then we will see God obviously active in our lives. We will not have to focus on our predicaments since we are living in God's providence. We will see God at work in so many ways. Even if He has not yet acted in direct response to the need we think most pressing, we will see that God is acting with great power and love in many other arenas of our life. Smith says that some of the ways God is working without our bidding may be more significant than what we think God should be doing for us.
So let us choose to leave victim life and its predicaments for victor life in the providence of our trustworthy God.
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