Stop Settling for Junk - Demand Better Stories

I spent some time on my recent sabbatical wondering whether I should keep writing. I’ll be honest that I really thought it might be useless. Is it worth writing made-up stories in a world of short attention spans from readers, limited time from me, and more ways to contribute to the world?

But I came away re-committed to it.

I’ve come to believe that human beings need stories to live. And the stories you love and believe and live by shape your life.

You might think, well, not everyone loves stories—I just love football. But football is a story. It’s the drama of a win-loss record, expectations, young quarterbacks overperforming, and open-field tackles to save the game.

You might think, well, people don’t watch stories anymore—they just scroll social media. But social media is a story. A story of a start-up brand from a single mom. A story of an entrepreneur who gave it one last chance. A glamorous celeb’s breakups. A prank full of suspense and surprise.

You might think, I don’t love stories—I just love music. But music is story. Even the dance music dripping in random phrases and synth beats is telling a story of escape and ecstasy. The country music tells the story of a simple life. The rap music tells the story of bling and success and respect. It’s all story. Every artist has a story and comes from somewhere and is going somewhere.

Why is this? Why can’t we escape stories?

To answer that, I need to ask a different question:

Have you ever considered how God comes to us? He comes to us through a story.

Genesis is the beginning of the story, Revelation the end. In between are not mere doctrinal truths (though there are many and glorious), but stories. And even the doctrinal points are embedded into a story. There are stories of Abraham with the knife over his son, stories of Moses leading people through walls of water, stories of David and his sling, stories of Ruth in a field. Each one of them is not merely there to deliver packets of information, but to give us a story that engages our hearts and minds.

I think this is why we love stories and why humans can’t escape them. Because God is a storyteller. And we were made to listen.

Consider the Story of Stories. Jesus, the God-man, comes to earth as a child. He heals and teaches, He lives and dies and rises again. Every step and word echoes with the stories that came before—of Passover lambs and wilderness wandering. Our hearts and minds are wrapped up in the drama of a husband pursuing his bride, a shepherd pursuing his sheep. The gospel is story. It is more than that, but it is never less.

But each part of the story isn’t subjective and meant for our interpretation. Each part of the story says something to us. Take for example 1 John 4:10: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The story means something. It means love. And it means love through a Father offering a Son to be the substitute for sinners.

No, that’s not quite right—we were meant to join Him in the story.

I spent two weeks with John Bunyan and Pilgrim’s Progress. For centuries, Pilgrim’s Progress was the most printed and read book in the English language next to the Bible. Why? There are many reasons, but most fundamentally I think it’s because it allows followers of Jesus to enter into a story. Bunyan doesn’t pull back on giving theology, or dealing with hard topics like suffering and suicide—but he does it in a story. In this, he echoes the Bible itself.

Here’s why this matters to you tonight: The stories you feed on shape you, for better or worse.

The classic teenager says that the rage rock he loves isn’t going to make him punch a wall. The girl says that her romance novels aren’t going to make her bed a handsome stranger. The dad with three kids says a revenge action movie is never going to make him pick up a gun. And the wife who loves cozy murder says she doesn’t intend to murder anyone in a small English village.

But in small, subtle, and constant ways, the stories shape you. The girl’s expectations of life and romance are shaped by those books. The dad might allow himself more thoughts of anger. And the wife might be escaping reality in that cozy village instead of facing it. Subtle at first, right? But think of the hours upon hours we spend in those stories, being shaped by each one.

Over time, we become what we read and watch and love.

So this is why I’ve decided to keep writing, keep sorting through the stacks of books in Barnes and Noble to find good books, keep scrolling to find better shows. Years ago, Bob Kauflin, Director of Sovereign Grace Music, told me how to deal with it when you wish you could listen to a band or song that you know isn’t good for you: “There’s plenty of music—more than you can ever listen to—go find the good stuff.” That’s a paraphrase, but it’s stuck with me.

So here’s my plea: Stop settling.

Find the good stuff. Support it. Help cultivate it.

Every click and dollar tells the world, “More like this, please.”

Find the good stuff. Love it. Let it shape you.

Every hour spent in those stories shapes you and says to your heart, “Make me like this, please.”

Love better stories.

As for me, I'm going to try to write better stories, too.

They won't be great, at least at first. But they'll be full of truth, light, beauty, and hope.

Let's stop settling for the junk. Let's demand better.

P.S. Stay tuned. Writing updates and my favorite stories from sabbatical are up next in the newsletter.