In the Moment: How your backstory helps grow your faith.

As writers, we love to think up a good backstory to a character we’ve created. We know that without a compelling backstory our characters feel and read like cardboard cutouts on the page.

But what about your own life? What if you’re trying to hide your backstory from others so they don’t see your broken parts? What if God wants to use your backstory to help other people see Him more clearly? Because it’s your backstory that helps your faith to grow more deeply.

For the most part of life, our backstory isn’t that thrilling. There are parts that don’t really make for interesting reading and we tend to gloss over them as we go along our journey. However, God sees everything you do because He knows those are the moments that shape you. He knows your internal and external conflicts right down to the last detail. He understands that wound that affected you when you were a child or that friend who betrayed your trust when you thought they’d be in your life forever.

IN THE MOMENT.

This is the reason why we keep reading and re-reading the stories in the Bible. We wouldn’t be able to celebrate David finally becoming king unless we knew his backstory. Like David, we will face our Goliath and our Saul before the promise God gave you comes to pass. Joseph’s backstory was what made him become prime minister over Egypt. Every trial and test were shaping and moulding Joseph to not just become a good leader but a great leader. It would be so easy to judge him, dressed in his Egyptian clothes and living in Pharaoh’s palace unless we knew the agony of his backstory.

Many Bible heroes had to overcome family circumstances and social class to be all that God made them be. God is very big on developing your character, and it’s through your backstory that you learn the most valuable lessons. Conflict is what makes a story about success good. It’s in those key moments that God is doing a great job in you, so you can reach out to someone else and tell them, “I’ve been where you are and it’s going to be okay.”

Your testimony is like a diamond cut from a rock that was hard and difficult to get to. Precious moments that helped to clarify the value of the stone. It’s in the moment that we look back and see how much we’ve grown. It’s in the moment when we’re writing our stories that we’ve gained so much wisdom through our backstory.

A relationship is what God wants more than anything with you, my friend. So, don’t pretend you don’t have a backstory. Don’t gloss over the lessons you’ve learnt along life’s journey. Own your story, it’s part of who you are. Because it’s in those defining, significant moments that God uses your voice in the most powerful and unbelievable ways.

Wendy xo