november | 2011
Savoring the Story By Leigh K Thomas
“A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order.” --Jean-Luc Godard
T
his November, I signed up for the absurd challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days in celebration of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. At the beginning, I told myself I wasn't going to focus on the word count; just the story. I had an outline and a solid start, and the experiment would be to see where one month of disciplined focus and writing would take me. By the end of the first week, I was pleased to find my characters developing and my plot forming into something I was actually excited about. The daily rhythms of constantly nursing this one
1
novel and always dreaming of this newly created world, allowed me to become so familiar with my story I could crawl inside it like a secret fort. But when my methodical, slowbut steady pace started to fall behind the target word count, I became distracted by my less-thanpar measurement, despite my early promises to myself. I was beginning to feel the pressure, and had to call into question what victory really meant for me here. So what if I didn’t get to 50,000? Hadn’t I already achieved something just by plunging in?
I didn’t realize the paralells then, but a similar thread unfolded in the real-life story of our family’s church plant deciding to come to an end. What happens when the finish line you end up crossing is not the same one you set out in search of ? When I re-read the story of our church, I can point out so many memorable lines, significant chapters, and an absolutely phenonemenal cast of characters. The first time I came to our church at the yacht club in 2008, I was just a friend of Joel’s, and I came back the following week as his girlfriend. In fact, I remember
november | 2011
Savoring the Story
recording in my journal that the sermon on Phillipians 4, about not being anxious and letting the peace of God guard your heart, helped solidify the kind of needed faith that comes with the beginning of a new relationship. I felt God telling me, “Don’t worry away a good thing. I am giving it to you, so trust me with it.” And I’m glad I did. I continued attending our church as Joel’s friend, girlfriend, then fiancee, and finally as his wife. Having his dad marry us was so special, as was being surrounded by our church family, celebrating with us and supporting us beyond just the wedding day. From the yacht club days to our move to McCordsville as Gateway Crossing, or “The Gate” as Pastor Jeff called it in his extra hip moments, both Joel and I are so proud to be part of this story. I’ve loved having my husband’s sweet familiar voice lead us in worship every week. I love that I’ve gained not just a family of in-laws, but also a larger family of Nazarene-inlaws. These people are hard to describe. Prayer warriors? Yes, they are this, but even more. They are each writers of stories worth knowing. So, what if the finish line is really just a passageway into the continuation of what’s been started? What if the victory is found in the savoring, in really knowing the story? Recommended Read:
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L’Engle
2
What happens when the finish line you end up crossing is not the same one you set out in search of?
Under pressure, it’s easy to focus on how far we still have to go, rather than to look back and see how far we’ve come. But I’m here and looking back, and I see a vision still being carried. I see people chasing after a God who has taught them how to live and to love and to mean it. We’re running beyond the finish line, because we can’t wait to see what will happen next. Now that’s a good story.