Unspoken, a Novella

I recently picked up a small book written by Francine Rivers called "Unspoken" and started reading it yesterday at the pool. It's a short novella about Bathsheba, a woman in the Bible whose life was marked by beauty, pain, death and sorrow. It's also about her relationship with King David, the second King of Israel. As I'm reading this author's take on the stories surrounding their lives, I'm reminded that my every day decisions are writing my life story too.

As a Christ follower who has read through the Bible several times, it's only once in awhile that I'm struck with the realization that the people were very human and lived lives full of difficulty, challenges and pain. Most of the stories recorded are about people who lived in the Middle East in much rougher conditions than you and I will ever know in the USA. Yet they are all listed in Hebrews 11 as champions of faith.

Life is long and I'm confronted with the truth that it's not about how well you start, but how well you finish. I want to finish well. Sometimes I choose well and other times I stumble, fumble and bumble. It's in those latter moments that I'm so thankful God is not a quitter. He doesn't give up on me. He's like the eternal coach on the side of the pool or near the race, yelling out to keep going, keep pushing. What I love is when I'm not stellar, when I'm not doing my best and He doesn't give up on me. He even jumps in the race with me and runs that last lap when I'm fighting for dear life. He loves it that I'm looking to Him and trusting Him to do a deeper work inside. He remains faithful, always calling me forward and upward. I appreciate the fact that He can do this with such authority. He's not just a coach, a good friend or a relative full of encouragement and/or correction, but He is King of nations, galaxies undiscovered, holding the world in His hands and He can call me to follow Him out of my own darkness with great strength.

I'm about half way through the Novella and I'm surprised again that God is so long-suffering with us. He is patient, kind, yet strong and unrelenting in calling us out of the things that bring us down in our humanity. I guess I never really focused on the pain David and Bathsheba caused other people because of their decisions. I'm a romantic and I'm always looking for the love story, the glory story. And I guess I realized again while reading this little book that in this life, things aren't always romantic. We will all experience sorrow, failure, suffering, pain. We will all make bad decisions and good ones too but who is my audience? What am I living for? What motivates me to press on? My coach Jesus. I know that my life is for the audience of One and I know that I'm living for His purposes. I despise that it would be in outward gestures for He knows my heart and He goes to the secret crevices of my pain and my perspective and brings life there. I want to be genuine in this faith walk and in my humanity I was encouraged through this Novella.