“God has crafted our character and given us a role that will reveal something about God that no one else’s story can reveal in quite the same way.”1 So says my colleague, Dr. Dan Allender of The Allender Center.
It turns out that God not only reveals himself to us but also reveals himself through us to others. Does that surprise you?
Like every person, you have been given a song that only you can sing.
Known by God
In The Message, the Samaritan woman says of Jesus, “He knows me inside and out” (John 4:29).
That is not difficult to believe. God created us, formed us in the womb, and knew us before anyone else did. It makes sense that God knows everything about us—our inner lives and our outward circumstances.
Charles Spurgeon, the nineteenth-century preacher, once asked, “What do you have that truly matters that you weren’t given?” It is a question worth pondering. How much did you have to do with any of the following?
- Face — Your DNA, physical features, and genetics.
- Place — Where you were born and raised, the neighborhoods that shaped you, your family of origin, and the role that faith, church, and Jesus played in your development.
- Race — Your ethnicity and racial identity. Did you choose any of it?
- Grace — The goodness, kindness, mercy, and compassion God has shown you throughout your life.
More Than Your Worst Days
The Samaritan woman ran back to her village to tell others about Jesus. “He told me everything I have ever done.”
We might assume she was speaking only about her sin. But remember: you are more than a diary of your worst days. Jesus saw the whole of her story. She became a singular witness to God, and so are you.
Someone once said that Jesus was the first person to put the words good and Samaritan in the same sentence. Because his eyes were shaped by the love of Abba, Jesus could see beyond labels, reputations, and assumptions. He saw people as beloved.
The Story Only You Can Tell
“Stand at the intersection of your affections and successes and find your uniqueness.”2
Or immerse yourself in the revelation of Psalm 139:
“For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; that I know very well… Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me when none of them as yet existed.”
You were created in glory and for glory, in love and for love.
Can you resonate with those words?
Your story is a declaration of Jesus that only you and he could write, and only you could live. It bears witness to the ways God has been present, at work, and faithful throughout your life. Perhaps that is what Jesus had in mind when he told his followers not to hide their light under a bushel.
“The glory that you have given me, I have given them so that they may be one, as we are one… so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:22–23)
Practice
For the next seven days, pray Jesus’ words from John 17 as your own. Pay attention to what stirs within you as you receive his love and his vision for your life.
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Keith Anderson, D.Min., is a Faculty Associate for Spirituality and Vocation at VantagePoint3 and President Emeritus of Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. He is the author of several books, including his most recent: On Holy Ground: Your Story of Identity, Belonging and Sacred Purpose (Wipf & Stock, 2024). His other works include Reading Your Life’s Story (IVP, 2016), A Spirituality of Listening (IVP, 2016), and Spiritual Mentoring (IVP, 1999). In his writing, teaching, and mentoring, Keith seeks to set a table for people looking to enter the “amazing inner sanctuary of the soul” in the most ordinary and extraordinary moments of life.
1Dan Allender, To Be Told: God Invites You to Coauthor Your Future
2Max Lucado, Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot