The Big Picture

This worldview, constituted by putting the mission of God at the very center of all existence, is disturbingly subversive and it uncomfortably relativizes one’s own place in the great scheme of things. It is certainly a very healthy corrective to the egocentric obsession of much Western culture—including, sadly, even Western Christian culture. It constantly forces us to open our eyes to the big picture, rather than shelter in the cozy narcissism of our own small worlds. We ask, “Where does God fit into the story of my life?” when the real question is where does my little life fit into this great story of God’s mission. We want to be driven by a purpose that has been tailored just right for our own individual lives (which is of course infinitely preferable to living aimlessly), when we should be seeing the purpose of all life, including our own, wrapped up in the great mission of God for the whole of creation. We talk about the problems of “applying the Bible to our lives,” which often means modifying the Bible somewhat adjectivally to fit into the assumed “reality” of the life we live “in the real world.” What would it mean to apply our lives to the Bible instead, assuming the Bible to be the reality—the real story—to which we are called to conform ourselves? —Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God, 534