Introduction

Introduction
Brent Curtis and John Eldridge in The Sacred Romance say this about story. "The deepest convictions of our heart are formed by stories and reside there in the images and emotions of story. Story is the language of the heart. So if we're going to find the answer to the riddle of the earth and of our own existence, we'll find it in story." 

Story, its message and meaning, has always gripped my heart. How many times over the years has the essence of a story, whether from a book or from a movie, called to me, speaking of something more, something beyond our present knowledge.

God is story. His telling of Story He calls Jesus.

The Bible is filled with stories, the very human stories of many individual people. And God says that we know Him only through the story of a Man laying down His life for His friends.

There, in that act of Love at the heart of His Story, God shows Himself as He really is. We know God through story; He speaks to us by story, the great story of God.

Every story is about a hero who leaves the comfort of home behind and goes on a far journey. On that journey the hero gathers friends and companions; he battles enemies along the way and enjoys places of rest and refreshment. These companions join their hearts to his along the way; though sometimes they are a silly distraction. One of his companions is a mentor who teaches him who he is. 

Then the day comes when the hero returns to fight for his people and his kingdom to deliver them from the oppressor. In that final showdown, at the point where everything counts, those companions who were once a silly distraction give their all out of the bond of love.

The hero faces the enemy at the point of the lie and defeats him. He restores the kingdom and brings joy and life to all.

Yes, I have described the hero of God's story, the Lord Jesus. But I have also described Simba in The Lion King and Maximus in Gladiator. I have described Frodo and Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings and even Jane Eyre or Elisabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.

This book is not an expose of those other stories, however, though it does mention them from time to time. But when we understand that God reveals Himself, His heart, through the power and pathos of story, then we see, dimly, yes, but from our hearts, that Story alone reveals God to us, the great story of God. Ideas about God cannot show us God, nor lists of doctrines hammered out.

The analytical human mind does not know Him. He is known only by the heart; He is seen only by those who engage with a Man laying down His life for His friends.

And so in this volume I attempt to draw the cover back a bit on this knowing of God by story. You will not find an analytical layout, point by point, but rather, the following of a heart message. I share a bit of my own story, my own engagement with this God of story, as well. Christ is always personal in us and in Himself. He is never a fact or an idea or any impersonal force.

Story, good story, begins with desire, and so I must begin with desire. Story has a setting; we must understand the setting in which God tells His story. Story always includes an opponent; without opposition, without contradiction there is no story. We must grapple with this devastating reality of God's story.

But story, to be real, must capture our own hearts. For you see, though this is God's story, it is also, very much, our story.

At the heart of our story, at the heart of God's story, are these words, spoken by the Hero who lives in our hearts.

Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down His life for His friends.

And so I give you the Great Story of God.