Devotion
The Greatest Story
Every one of us is confronted with the question of how to live a life that truly matters. Before us stand three paths, each calling to us, urging us forward. These paths are unnamed and offer no guarantees, yet each leads to one of three outcomes: success, mediocrity, or failure.
Success
The door to success is shaped by how we define it. For some, it’s love and being loved; for others, it’s knowledge, family, health, wealth, fame, legacy, or material achievements. Whatever the definition, success is the pursuit of its highest fulfillment. Yet for many, it becomes an endless chase—like a man who considers himself rich yet cannot stop chasing more. It’s the relentless climb toward the peak of life’s mountain, always reaching higher, never fully satisfied.
Mediocrity
The door to mediocrity opens to a life of ordinariness, lacking true fulfillment. It’s a life of settling—content with the shallow end, never facing complete failure but never making a lasting impact either. It drifts between fleeting moments of happiness when things are good and sorrow when they are lost. This is the person who climbs halfway up the mountain of life, content with the view but never pushing further.
Failure
The door to failure opens to a life marked by regret. This person feels as if they’ve failed at everything, never truly belonging or finding purpose. Perhaps they’ve fallen into addiction, crime, or despair. Their time on earth is marked by heartache, pain, and suffering. Like a climber who slips before ever reaching a foothold, they remain at the base of the mountain, unable to rise.
I don’t know what stage of life you’re in or how old you are, but one day, you will find yourself on one of these three paths.
Imagine having the power to write your own story, to decide how it ends—no matter where you are in life. Picture yourself 10 to 30 years from now. If you could shape your future in any way, what would it look like? Now, imagine I told you that whatever you wrote down would come true.
What if we could write our story—a dream life, a thousand pages filled with the wonders we envision, a life that seems perfect in our eyes? We’d eagerly set the pen down and begin living each page, thrilled by the possibilities. But then, as we turn the page, we find that our time on earth has come to an end. Just like that, the story is finished. The truth is, no one knows the day or hour when our existence here will come to a close. It could end at any moment, without warning.
The idea of being able to write our own stories sounds enticing, doesn’t it? But here’s the hard truth: even if we could write our stories, we must remember that our time on earth is limited. No matter how grand or tragic the story we create, it will eventually be left behind. It cannot transcend our existence. It will fade, burn away, and become a distant memory—quickly slipping from view. For those we leave behind, our story will remain a fleeting memory, no matter how hard they try to hold on. Eventually, even they will begin to forget.
What if there’s more to life than the fleeting stories we write for ourselves? What if there’s a greater story—one that transcends our brief existence on earth, one that will be celebrated for all eternity? A story that is truly life, a life remembered forever. This is a story we’re invited to be part of, but only if we’re willing to let go of our temporary tales and embrace something far greater.
I don’t know what stage or age you’re at, or how you feel—whether successful, mediocre, or like a failure. Perhaps you’re just beginning your journey. Before you move forward, you must decide: do you want to write your own story, or become part of something greater? If you're just starting out, there’s no better time to invest in the greater story of God’s kingdom. And if you’re nearing the end, it’s the perfect moment to step into God’s eternal story and finish your life’s story the right way.
In the end, you must ask yourself: What path are you on? What story are you writing? How will it end, and what will it have meant? And are you convinced you can write a story greater than the one God has already written?
What story is God inviting us to join?
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