BEFORE I WROTE A BOOK, I WAS IN A BOOK

In 2007, journalist and author Mark Kreidler published a book titled Four Days to Glory: Wrestling with the Soul of the American Heartland. It followed the life of two senior high school wrestlers – Dan LeClere and Jay Borschel – in their quest for an elusive fourth state title in Iowa. One emphasis in the book was to deliver a behind-the-scenes look into the lives of these two young men in the midst of their pursuit of wrestling glory. In this involved revealing a few vulnerable aspects. For example, alongside some difficult family dynamics and personal struggles, LeClere repeatedly discussed his frustration with the one loss of his high school career in which he was unable to experience a sense of redemption. He only had two blemishes on his record: one was from a fellow Iowa wrestler whom he ended up defeating later on in the state tournament his freshman year, and the second was to a Minnesota wrestler he lost to as a junior at an Iowa tournament which hosted the Minnesota team. What bothered LeClere was not just the loss itself; it was the fact that he never had an opportunity for payback. He couldn’t even remember the competitor’s name, let alone track him down for a rematch. As a result, the Minnesota wrestler was like a mysterious bad dream which served no other purpose than to haunt him.

As it turns out, the Minnesota wrestler was me. I was a senior at Apple Valley High School, and my team made the trip down to the Don Bosco duals for some quality competition outside the state. When I stepped on the mat with LeClere, I had no clue who he was. It wasn’t until I walked off the mat after scoring the winning takedown in overtime that my coaches explained to me who it was I had defeated.

Throughout the book, LeClere repeatedly returned to the pain and frustration in losing to the Minnesota wrestler. And as I read this, I felt an odd sense of identity. It’s strange enough to read a book in which you’re a part of the story. It’s even more so when your name and overall identity are hidden. In the book, I was recognized by a vague description: “the Minnesota wrestler.” No name; just a shadowy figure who apparently delivered a sense of anguish in the life of another.

The Book In Which All Of Us Are A Part Of The Story

Believe it or not, all of us are a part of a story; but not all of us have read the book or have necessarily seen ourselves in it. The Bible is not simply a canon of ancient, religious literature or a book of moral law. It’s a book which contains the story of God. Yes, this story can be filled with a significant amount of peculiarity and confusion. But when the Bible is read, the reader should be drawn to it in the sense that he or she can actually see themselves in the story. In other words, they are not only immersing themselves in God’s story, but they can see that they are a part of it. For instance, in the beginning we read about the fall of Adam and Eve into the clutches of sin. What’s important is not whether or not they were in conversation with an evil, talking snake prior to their decision to sin (I personally have never encountered any talking snakes in my life). What’s important is recognizing that, early on in God’s story, humanity chose to separate themselves from relationship with Him and chose their own course in life instead. Therefore, as readers engaging this story today, we should see ourselves in the story. In other words, every single one of us have chosen to reject God, have bolstered our own authority, and pursued our own endeavors. We have all chosen self over God.

When we reach the part in the Bible when Jesus bursts onto the scene, we arrive at a crucial point in the story. We find that Jesus was God Himself. And we discover that, through His life, death and resurrection, Jesus (God), despite our rejection of Him, has invited us back into His story. As a result, at some point we all must make a choice on account of our own chosen “fall:” will we say “yes” to God or will we say “no?” In other words, will we look upon Jesus and dismiss Him as a fool, a liar or merely a nice guy, or will we fall to our knees and embrace Him as Lord and Savior. As C.S. Lewis famously put it in his apologetic piece Mere Christianity: “You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.”

Once we have said “yes” to God, our encounter with the scriptures should be transformed in conjunction with the transformation taking place in our lives. For instance, no longer do we read the promise God makes to Abraham in the Old Testament of making him the “father of many nations” (Genesis 17:1-7) on account of his faith in God as merely a story in a very old book. Instead, we read it with ourselves inserted into the story. That is, you and I – those who have accepted God’s invitation through Jesus – see that we are a part of this promise, this future family; we are the sons and daughters of Abraham through our faith. God is talking about us!

This Story Has a Happy Ending

Do you know the best thing about being part of God’s story? It’s the fact that there’s a happy ending. It’s the gift of assurance that, when the story reaches its end, God wins (1 Corinthians 15:57). In other words, even though the story is riddled with pain and suffering, we are given the story’s ending before we get there…and it’s a good one! And this is because Jesus alone took upon Himself the entirety of evil and suffering on the cross, and defeated it in the power of the resurrection (Colossians 2:13-15). So even though evil still has a voice in the world today, when Jesus returns, He will shut the mouth of evil; and those who called on His name will be ushered in to His perfect goodness and love.

I became an author when I started writing and publishing my books. But before I wrote a book, I was in a book…and so were you.