I just read this in Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk's book The Missional Leader:

“when narratives erode and social context moves into rapid discontinuity, people feel as if they have no way to make sense of their experience.They lose direction, order and purpose. A congregation becomes a receptacle for anxious individuals seeking solace and security, rather than a community that can participate in forming Kingdom witness.” p.74 

Simply put, when you forget the story you are living in your own story becomes smaller and smaller and your head climbs deeper and deeper into your own belly button! 

Why is this?  Because life can be scary.  Especially at a time like now where things are changing all over the place and the rate of change seems only to be accelerating rather than levelling out.  The whole employment landscape is shifting so that the type of work that exists today and for which we are being trained may not event exist in 5 years!  Our economy is downsizing and may sustain things differently or even less than in the past.  Our politics is at a nadir of hope giving potential.  Families are crumbling and thus the entire approach to "family" is being re-written for our culture.  Safety concerns.  Religious fundamentalism is breeding new and more malevolent coalitions of revolt against the West.  Health concerns in an age of global climate shifts. Etc... Etc... Etc...

Now that you are sufficiently freaked out I trust that you get my point.  When life is scary we shrink our expectations and survive.  So our "story" starts to look like personal survival or personal pleasure.  This "story" is just the way we describe our goals and expectations of the years that comprise our lives.

But Our Creator has His own "story."  It says you have a purpose bigger than personal survival or pleasure.  It says you were meant for INFLUENCE.  It says that this influence is the HOPE OF THE WORLD.  Your Creator's Story is that Humans were made for connection with God and that they flourish when they are living in the realm of His reign and influence.  His Story says that Jesus entered Human History at the critical hinge moment and "Mcafee'd the horrific virus that enslaves Creation" and that Hope is reborn if you will yield yourself to His Kingdom reign and influence in your story.  And His Story says that you then become the brokers and bearers of THIS HOPE OF THE WORLD as His agents of This Kingdom.  Jesus said it clearly when he said, "You are The Light of The World."

Is this your story?  Do you face the scary-ness of today with a clear purpose that you were built to infect that day with The Hope of The World?  Do you see yourself and your life in these terms?  Is success and satisfaction defined by these plotlines?  Are your hopes and dreams informed by these character descriptions?  Maybe we've been watching the wrong movie?  Maybe that is part of why we have the wrong church for today?  Maybe a new reel can birth a new vision in us that will pierce the fear with HOPE and FAITH?

Will you be brave enough to exit The Storyline of Personal survival and pleasure and enter into your casting as a broker of THE HOPE OF THE WORLD?  It will change everything about your own view of your 70 years on this planet.