Characters

C. S. Lewis once compared God creating you and me to an author creating a character for a novel. Having created characters for a novel, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the comparison.

Characters must be distinct. To create characters that are alike makes it difficult to remember who is who. Character has to have a purpose, a reason for being in the story. Characters must move the story forward, and, lastly, characters must be real. By that, I mean they must be three-dimensional. The way that happens is by giving them irregularities, flaws that make them human. Characters need a “limp,” someone once said, through which they walk through life.

When I apply these truths about creating characters to God creating you and me, I see some important things to keep in mind:

·      We are called to be distinct. I think that is what Jesus meant when he said we needed to be salt . . . to have taste. We were not created to be like others, even though much of the time we strive to look, sound, and be like others. In the end, it becomes difficult to see who’s who. Better to uncover what makes us unique and live lives out of that uniqueness.

·      Each of us has a purpose, a reason we’re in the story. It might not necessarily be grand and glorious purpose, though it might be, but each of us has work to do that is uniquely ours to do.

·      We are here to move the story forward. It might not be the purpose we wanted or envisioned, but the story depends on us. As people of faith, we believe life has a plot and everything we do needs to serve the plot.

·      Finally, like a character in a story, we need to be real. We need to be three-dimensional. That means not hiding our flaws or quirks but living a life with and through them. In other words, we need to accept our “limps” and walk through life anyway. So many people deny the things that make them real; they hide them and hope no one will notice. The magic of life, the magic of authentic living, however, is embracing all of who we are and bringing it all to whatever we do, to whatever conversation we have, to whatever relationship we’ve been given.

Can you imagine such a world - a world full of real, wonderful, quirky characters serving a plot we didn’t write? It’s beyond exciting. It’s enough to get me out of bed and be the character I was created to be.

Want to come along?