Headlines

I think this is pretty relevant to anyone who has been through something in the past that happened to them or that they wished they could have changed or done differently. There’s a saying, ‘You can’t escape the past’ and to that I would say, ‘With God, all things are possible.’

I think the Devil’s job is to try to figure out in your life, “What can I put in big, bold letters across the top of their story that will mislead them away from their calling and away from their purpose and away from God in their life?”

I believe that if you let him, the Enemy will sit at the editor’s desk of your life, and he’ll take the facts of what happened to you and the facts of what you’ve been through, and what he’ll do is suggest ‘Maybe God doesn’t care…‘ Here’s the thing, you’re not looking for a guy with a pitchfork…

You’re looking for a guy who looks an awful lot and sounds an awful lot like you.

That’s how he does it.

If you let him, the Enemy will take everything that happened to you, and he’ll arrange it in such a way to get you to click through it. He’ll hit you with such a thought that seems so conclusive. It’s like the devil is saying, “What’s the thing I can say at the top that will keep them from reading on to find out the real story.

What can I tell them?

Maybe I can tell them that because they were abused, they’re worthless.

Maybe I can tell them that because they struggle in this one subject, that they’re learning disabled.

Maybe I can tell them because they’ve failed at relationships, they’re damaged goods.

What the devil does, is he’ll put a headline over your life. It will say, ‘I was emotionally neglected.’
So when I think of myself, I’ll think in terms of that limitation – in that one area, and I won’t be able to see that it’s just one area – and I really have gifts in other areas that can shine if I can stick with it and if I can focus on what I’m good at.

The devil doesn’t want us to see that.

It works like this, the devil just wants you to read the rest of his story instead of knowing the real story.

Maybe if he can convince you that nobody loves you, even if there are in fact many people in your life who love you, but if he can put loneliness as the headline over your life, he can keep you from ever experiencing the love that others are willing to give you.

I know this is truth, because I have lived with that headline over my own life and despite having so many wonderful people in my life who love & respect me, I’ve got a flashing neon sign overshadowing all the love that is available to me.

The devil’s semblance can keep you from God’s substance.

Maybe he can convince someone they’re an addict. Then maybe they’ll think they have no control. Then maybe they’ll think they’re not accountable for their actions because it’s just who they are, or because it’s who their dad was.

Maybe then he can convince someone that he’ll never be a good dad. Because he never had a good dad. Maybe he can take the fact that his dad walked out on him when he was 7, and if he can print that big enough and say it often enough and drop it off at his doorstep every day as a reminder, “maybe I…”

The Devil is a liar.

You don’t get to control your story, but you do get to choose your headlines. You just don’t get to select the script.

Let’s look at the story of Joseph. He wouldn’t have chosen to be thrown into a pit by his brothers when he was 17 years old. He wouldn’t have chosen to be falsely accused of rape and thrown into a prison as a reward for his service. Yet all these things happened, and all of these things were traumatic, but they were not defining.

Just because it happened doesn’t mean it has to make the headlines. The one who writes the story is not the one who chooses the headlines, and life is going to put some stuff in your story you wish you could change and things you didn’t choose.

Yet Joseph, with the rape charge, false imprisonment, and near death at the hands of his brothers,
at the end of it all, as he is publishing the proclamation of what his life has been about,
he says,

“If you were writing my story, you would have had me as a slave, but I’m not a slave.”

“If you were writing my story, you would have had me as a naive boy who didn’t know any better than to keep his dreams to himself, but I’ve changed from that.”

“If you were writing my story, and if life were writing my story, I would be a victim.“

But I refuse to let what happened to me be the headline of my life.

I refuse to let the divorce I went through define me.

I refuse to let my failed engagement define me.

I refuse to let my past struggles with depression & anxiety define me.

In other words, I’m not going to allow life to write my headlines.

Things can happen to me, but there’s a big difference between what happens to me and what I headline.

You are not the author, but you *are* the editor.

The editor doesn’t determine what the book is about.

In the same way, I don’t believe God has really called us to determine what our life is about. I think he has already given us that. I think Joseph illustrates it clearly. He says, “I was put here…” He uses a word. He says, “I was sent here to save lives.”

You need a dream to drive your decisions. You need a dream to drive you toward your destiny. What you don’t necessarily need is the details of that dream. If you trust God, you know that He will supply you with the details – not early, not late, but at exactly the time they’re needed.

Every time. God simply is that good.

The more I travel down this road I’m on (the road to Salvation) the more I realize I don’t need to completely understand the vision God gave me. I just need to trust him.

I’ve written about this before, last year He gave me a vision – of what my role would be in His kingdom, and what my finances would be, and who would be with me on that journey, etc. It was a lot for me to take in while in the middle of a very difficult season.

The story of Joseph fits all this well. Joseph was a young man when he saw a vision from God that he didn’t understand. He saw something that was beyond his ability to comprehend or even handle. He was seeing a picture of how one day, even those brothers who betrayed him, they would one day come and bow down before him.

You don’t really need to know the details. You just need to know that your dream is in development.

In a second dream Joseph sees the stars and the sun and the moon bowing down to him. This time it’s not only his brothers, but his parents who are going to be dependent on him. At the end of his life, where he’s speaking with his brothers who hated him so much that instead of leaving him for dead, they sold him into slavery.

But Joseph refused to let the Enemy be his editor.

There’s so much you can dig out of in the story of Joseph.

Why in the world would you let your Enemy be your editor?

Why would you let your doubt and your cynicism, and your negativity and your past tell you where you’re going?

You see, Joseph in the story is explaining to his brothers basically his point of view. That’s one of the things you have to decide when you write a story,

“What’s my point of view?”

Joseph is explaining to his brothers a point of view that allowed him to come to this place where he could say, “I know the story should be that they sold Joseph out, but that’s not what I’m going to call these chapters of my life.”

I know in my story what the enemy wants to call this chapter of my life, but I’m not going to let him.

That’s not my point of view.

And let me tell you, I have found since my Salvation that perspective is everything.

When Joseph is speaking to his brothers, he speaks with compassion and mercy, because he understands that he is only responsible for his response. You are not responsible for all of the events that occur in your life, only your response to those events. How will you respond?

Many people have come from broken households. Your parents’ divorce is not your fault.

The Devil is a liar.

If he has been telling you that, kick him off the editor’s desk and tell him, “I refuse to see it that way. That’s the wrong lens. That can’t be true. That’s not God.”

Ask yourself that question too, when you are unsure, when you are conflicted, and if the answer is “That’s not God” then you’ve got your answer. Its amazing how many problems in life can be solved with that simple statement.

“That’s not God.“

In Genesis 45:4, Joseph says, “You sold me.” In Genesis 45:5, He says, “God sent me.”

Same event, different headline.

The headline you choose about your life’s experiences determines whether you stay stuck in what happened, or if you move forward to where you’re headed. I no longer write my headlines about what happened; I write my headlines based on where I’m headed.

See that’s why it’s called a headline, because I’m headed somewhere.

I have a dream, and I’m going towards it.