It's Just Like Reading A Book

So I am proud to say that I'm a book nerd. I LOVE reading. Anything. I love school, I love magazines, I love any and every book. I just love to read. That being said..I think that "reading a book" is a great analogy for a lot of things. And here is what I'm talking about.

Do you ever feel like your life is a book? People often say you have to "Begin a new chapter of your life" or "Close the cover of this book and start a new one". Meaning that that particular part of your life is over and you need to move on.
Well I feel like my life is a book. However, mine is a bit different than normal books. I feel that my life is the kind of book people like to deem a "cliff-hanger" kinda novel.

As you get closer to the end of the last chapter of this particular book in the series, you are thinking NO way...this book/chapter cannot possibly end like this. It's right at the height of the story, right in the middle of the action, and you are loving every minute of it, and then you flip the page and suddenly the story is over. You're left thinking "I just wish I could keep reading the last page of this chapter so maybe, just maybe, the story won't end the way I know it's going to". Maybe if you read that last bit enough, when you flip the page over, miraculously the last, conclusive, settling, satisfying chapter is there and your heart can finally feel good that that book is over. You think that the characters in the story can't just end things the way the book ends. You finish the last line and you sit there going That didn't just say "THE END". There has to be more to the story than that.
And sometimes there is. Sometimes a few months or years down the road, those people get the chance to pick up where they left off. People get a chance to find out what happens in the end of the story, and they are finally left with some peace. But there are two sides to that. Sometimes, you never get to find out. Sometimes the story ends abruptly, and no matter how hard you try, you never get that satisfaction of knowing things worked out. You're left to wonder your whole life what would have been, what could have been.
I wish every chapter of my life had a happy ending, or maybe not an ending at all.
But it doesn't work that way. The country band Rascal Flatts has a line in a song that says "Life's like a novel with the end ripped out". And that's so true. As much as we can wish and hope and pray that the story, OUR story, ends happily just the way we want it to, it isn't that easy. We have no idea how our story will end. Even if we have read the back of the book, it doesn't reveal every detail about how the story will end. We can't know how it all unfolds. But we read it any way. We keep flipping those pages. We trust that eventually the story HAS to get better. So we keep reading. And that's how life goes.

So if you agree with me, if you feel that your life is like a book too, keep flipping the pages. Don't stop reading your story just because it's sad. Don't put down the book because you think there is no way the story can end well. Keep reading. Trust that if this particular chapter ends in a way you don't like, the next chapter, or even your next book, will have a better ending. If one of the main characters in your story, or perhaps even your favorite character, doesn't make it to the next chapter, trust there is a reason.

You can be a co-author, but God is the ultimate Author of your story. You just have to give up your pencil, hand it over to God, and let him write it instead. Trust he has big ideas for your upcoming books. You know he won't leave you standing on the edge of a cliff wondering what just happened and how your life could ever get better after an ending like you just experienced. Let his presence and his plans for your life give you peace.

And keep reading your story.