Aligning the Story of Your HeartSample

From the beginning of your life, you’ve been primed for meaning and love. Unconsciously, you’ve been furiously taking notes as you’ve experienced life. You’ve been trying to discover who you are, who God is, who people are, and what the world is all about. You’ve internalized spoken and unspoken messages. In fact, you’ve been a sponge soaking up everyone’s mood, words, and actions, especially in the formative years of your childhood.

As you’ve interpreted meaning through interactions and circumstances, words were written on your heart. Before long, you began to draw conclusions and define meaning. As accumulated experiences affirmed this meaning, the words grew into themes, sentences, and chapters. The writing continued  until one day a dominant story emerged, a story that carries  your deepest meanings. It’s the story of your heart. Your story is much more than a tale of feelings. It’s the narrative of your identity—who you believe you are. It’s more than an account of your life experiences. It’s the story of how your experiences have shaped you. It is more than a picture of the visible life you lead. It gets behind the scenes to explain what’s buried deep inside you, driving you and guiding you.

The story of your heart is guiding you—in fact, far more than you know. You may think you’re a bunch of randomly collected feelings, habits, inclinations, and proclivities, but you’re far more cohesive than that. The story of your heart bonds together what’s within you and what flows out of you. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 27:19 echoes that saying, “As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.” The
story of your heart is the “meta-narrative,” the big story of who you are: how you relate to people, your drives and passions, the ways you defend yourself and hide from hard truths, and why you respond the way you do.

Few of us take the time to uncover our story, but it must be understood. Only when we see it clearly and understand its power will we have enough perception to allow it to be rewritten. Getting beyond where we are now won’t come from trying harder, being more disciplined, or changing our circumstances. It will come by handing the pen to God and joining Him as He edits our story.