Skip to main content

"If you need a synonym for plot twist, try peripety."

 

A thought by Max Lucado, from his book, You Were Made for This Moment (p. 131). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)

A what?


Max continues, "It’s a literary device that describes a redirected storyline. It’s that moment in the book that causes you to stay up past your bedtime because you can’t believe what just happened."

He later says, "Are your days marked by mourning, fasting, weeping, and lamenting? Does the promise of a reversal seem too distant, too remote?

"Maybe an illness has taken its toll. Sorrow has taken your joy. Maybe you live under the shadow of a Haman. You report to a self-centered creep. Your elected officials are out of touch with reality. You are married to a spouse who isn’t the same spouse you married. Your skin color isn’t the accepted color of your culture.

"The struggles of life have pilfered the life out of your life, and you don’t know where to turn. You’ve been disappointed so many times. And you are so very, very tired."

He says, "If that is you, I’m sorry. I truly am. It stinks, I know. But I urge you—with every ounce of energy I can muster, I urge you—don’t give in to despair. The anaconda of hopelessness will squeeze the life out of you. You can’t give up. You just can’t. There is too much at stake.

"Your Bible invites you to believe in a coming peripety. 

  • Abraham and Sarah were old and barren one day and then saucer-eyed and pregnant the next. Peripety. 
  • Joseph went to sleep one night as an Egyptian prisoner. He went to sleep the next night as the Egyptian prime minister. Peripety. 
  • The Red Sea was uncrossable one minute and a pathway the next. Peripety. 
  • Joshua marched seven times around the city of Jericho. After the sixth circle the walls were standing. After the seventh they were rubble. Peripety. 
  • Goliath defied Israel for forty days. But then David loaded a peripety in his sling and let it fly. Down went the giant. 
  • The 450 prophets of Baal mocked Jehovah, but then Elijah prayed, and a fire-filled peripety fell from heaven. 
  • The lions wanted to eat Daniel one moment, but they couldn’t open their mouths the next. Their jaws were wired shut with divine peripety."

He then says, "Do you sense the rhythm? In God’s hands no script is predictable, no story line is inevitable, no outcome is certain. He is ever a turn of the page from a turn-on-a-dime turnaround. For heaven’s sake look in the Bethlehem barn. Who saw this coming? Or better asked, who saw him coming? God sleeping in a feed trough, still moist from Mary’s womb. He held the universe in one moment and squeezed Mary’s pinkie the next.

"He is the God of grand reversals."

So have you found that true yet? Well, He is! Yes, yes! #continuethought 

 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“We believe it’s important to derive value from everything in our lives.”

A thought by Jon Tyson from his book, The Burden Is Light: Liberating Your Life from the Tyranny of Performance and Success (p. 118). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) But is that all that is important? Jon says, “We want to realize an immediate return from whatever we invest in. I am prone to this way of thinking in so many areas of my life. ‘I paid a lot for that meal, yet the portions were not that big.’ ‘I invested two hours in that movie, and it was just okay.’   ‘I went to church, but the sermon wasn’t that profound.’ We believe it’s important to derive value from everything in our lives. But beauty doesn’t fit within that framework. When Mary anointed Jesus with oil, there was an immediate outcry against her extravagant generosity. ‘It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.’ (Mark 14:5) One gospel depicts the disciples crying, ‘Why this waste?...
Post a Comment
Read more

"Lie 2: The more you worry about it, the better your odds of avoiding it."

A thought by Louie Giglio in his book,   Winning the War on Worry    (p. 5). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Here is another lie that the Enemy uses with us. And Louie says, "This is a tricky lie. Yes, we often have cause for concern and preparation. But the Enemy wants you to believe that if you worry or fret over a certain outcome long enough, you can keep something bad from happening." But this is so important to realize. He says, "The reality is worrying has never once prevented something negative from happening. Planning might. Prayer has. But worry never will." He continues, "The Enemy tells you that by worrying about a situation (or every situation) you can make your tomorrow better. Really, worry just robs you of today. Jesus implored us: 'I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body mor...
Post a Comment
Read more

“Hurry and love are incompatible.”

A thought by John Mark Comer from his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (p. 23). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Wow, pretty strong thought isn’t it? John says, “All my worst moments as a father, a husband, and a pastor, even as a human being, are when I’m in a hurry—late for an appointment, behind on my unrealistic to-do list, trying to cram too much into my day. I ooze anger, tension, a critical nagging—the antitheses of love. If you don’t believe me, next time you’re trying to get your type B wife and three young, easily distracted children out of the house and you’re running late (a subject on which I have a wealth of experience), just pay attention to how you relate to them. Does it look and feel like love? Or is it far more in the vein of agitation, anger, a biting comment, a rough glare? Hurry and love are oil and water: they simply do not mix.” He goes on, “Hence, in the apostle P...
Post a Comment
Read more