Trust God to Write Your Story

During a recent trip to Maryland, I drove beyond our family farm to visit the campus of Western Maryland College. I wanted to meander the commons and courtyards of this old Methodist college I originally planned to attend. Had much changed since 1967 when I would’ve been a freshman? As I wheeled past the brick buildings, I kept thinking, how different my life would’ve been had I graduated from here. My goal was to become a physical therapist, but who knows? Maybe I would’ve changed my major, left school to marry, or even wandered away from my fledgling Christian faith.

All I know is that you, Jesus, had a much better design for my life. I paused on a hill overlooking the athletic field and smiled. Yes, I got into physical therapy… but as a quadriplegic from a diving accident just weeks before my college orientation! Never, ever did I dream I would come to this school as a visitor in a wheelchair.

“Situations that seem confusing and chaotic to us are actually plot threads God is weaving together to create a story… a beautiful, compelling work of art.”

You Can Trust God to Write Your Story

And a very contented visitor. I felt no hint of remorse or regret. Not once did I envy the girls on the athletic field, practicing lacrosse. To be honest, I couldn’t wait to get back in the van and continue the drive to our Joni and Friends’ Family Retreat just north in the Pennsylvania mountains.

God has made his design for my life abundantly clear – for the past 40 years, I have led a Christian ministry which is reaching for Christ hundreds of thousands of disabled people and their families across the US and around the world. We hold retreats for special-needs families across the globe and deliver thousands of wheelchairs to needy kids with disabilities overseas. To give hope and help to hurting people? I can’t think of a happier story that God could’ve written for my life.

And God is heaven-bent on writing satisfying stories in all our lives. You’ll discover that in this remarkable book, You Can Trust God to Write Your Story. God may design some chapters in our lives to be long and delightful; others, far too short, and sometimes painful. But we only see the meaning of our story when it fits into the context of a bigger, far greater story of Jesus Christ himself. My best life-chapters were not the easy, breezy days of being on my feet; they were the deep ones when I was suffering and groping for the arms of my Savior.

The authors of this book, Robert Wolgemuth and his wife, Nancy, could say the same. I met them both decades ago when Nancy was single and completely focused on her international teaching ministry. Robert was an executive at Word Publishing, happily married with two children. Their stories seemed easy to read and almost predictable. Anyone could easily guess how God would write their future chapters. But then, the mysteries of God’s providence came into play, forcing them both in uncharted and new directions. Like me, their stories turned out far different than originally planned. But that’s the glorious part of God’s mysterious ways!

If God seems to be writing an unusual story in your life, don’t resist his penmanship on the pages of your days.

So, it’s wise to leave our storyline to the best Storyteller of all. Nowadays, however, we’re told to reinvent our stories; to rewrite the drama of our own lives. Our culture is constantly telling us through movies, books, and music that we are the captains of our own souls, without need of the One who created us. 

If God seems to be writing an unusual story in your life, don’t resist his penmanship on the pages of your days. Don’t balk against the bumps and bruises he writes into your script. I will be the first to confess that his providence can, at times, read like a mystery novel, but in the end, his story line for those who trust him is always wise, specific, and good. Good for you and for others. Best of all, good for the Kingdom.

You hold in your hands an amazing book whose title says it all: You Can Trust God to Write Your Story. For if you are a follower of Jesus, every day of your life – whether you feel like it or not – is weighted with kingdom purpose, eternal significance, and a royal destiny filled with joy and contentment. Get ready to let my dear friends, Robert and Nancy help you embrace the mysteries of the Lord’s providence. For when it comes to happy endings, you can’t find a better Author than the God of the Bible.

Happy endings are his forte – turn the page, trust him and discover it for yourself.

–Joni Eareckson Tada