“You know what the news is… In a minute, you’re going to hear… the REST of the STORY.”
“The rest of the story”—Radio pundit Paul Harvey was the one who made it a household phrase. This morning’s message comes from a story by Max Lucado’s book, In the Eye of the Storm, which is written in “the-rest-of-the-story” style. When I first read it, my first thought was—“That would be a terrific sermon starter someday.” Today is that day! This is the story of “The Woodcutter’s Wisdom.”
The basis for the sermon today is 1 Corinthians 13. If you are familiar with Corinthians, you may know that this is about love. However, don’t jump to conclusions about the topic!
As we listen to the story, we find the woodcutter has become frustrated with the villagers, who keep drawing their own conclusions about his circumstances. “You always draw conclusions… No one knows if it is a blessing or a curse. No one is wise enough to know. ONLY…GOD…KNOWS.”
Life’s mishaps and successes are only a single page out of a grand book. Although most of us are experts at jumping to conclusions, at any given time, we only have a fragment of life and must learn to become slow about drawing conclusions. We must reserve judgment on life’s storms until we know “the rest of the story.”
How do we learn to be patient—like the woodcutter? Maybe we can learn from the ‘woodcutter’ in Galilee, for it was that Carpenter who said it best: Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself (Matthew 6:34). “He should know,” Lucado wrote. “He is the Author of OUR story.” And, He has already written “the rest of the story.”
