The Fear We Do Not Matter

Have you ever considered what it would be like to be the hero at a difficult point of an adventure? To be Obi-Wan Kenobi going into hiding with almost all the other Jedi dead. Or to be Frodo on the way across the land of Mordor with only Sam Gamgee as a helper. It would be easy to believe that the story was over and everything was hopeless. We who are viewing things from the outside know better, but it would be different if we were in the story. When we look at our own story, it is often not clear whether we have failed or whether we are at a hard place in the story. Or, even worse, we may fear we are an extra, a bit player, who really makes no difference in how the story turns out. We fear that, in the final analysis, we and our lives do not matter.

This is why we need to understand that, if we are believers in Christ, God is in control of our lives and is leading us were He wants us to go to accomplish His purpose. In Ephesians 2:10 we are told that (if we have trusted in Him as it says in Ephesians 2:8,9) we are made by Him to carry out those things He has planned for us to do. In Romans 8:28 it says God causes all things together for good to those who love God, and in Ephesians 1:11 it says God works all things according to the counsel of His will. God has already written our story for us. We don’t necessarily know what will happen, what the twists and turns are, what will happen in the hard places. We cannot guess beforehand that Darth Vader is our father or that the wanderer Strider is the heir of ancient kings. But we do know the ending. In Romans 8:37 it says that in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. I used to wonder about this, since sometimes I don’t feel like a conqueror and sometimes it doesn’t look like I am a conqueror. But I am convinced that this is written from God’s perspective; He has seen the whole story and He says that we are the winners.

This does not mean we cannot disobey God, though God has a way of putting us back on the path (see the book of Jonah). But it does mean we cannot be insignificant. We have a part in that great story that goes down the ages written by the hand of God. We can think, if only that had not happened I could accomplish something meaningful. Or sometime in the future I might be able to make a difference. But the God who made us in our mother’s womb (Psalms 139:13-16) has a plan for our life. Not a plan that might be, but a plan that is.