THIS IS MY STORY PART 4: THE SETTING

If nature hates a vacuum, then no story exists without a setting to provide context. Entire genres of literature are formed around settings and how people react to them. Stories set in small towns might have quirky characters. Stories set in jungles might be adventurous. Stories set in urban locations might be edgy.

Your story, then, has a setting – a backdrop against which everything plays out. As our Author writes, He calls us out of the setting where our story has unfolded, leading us into something new. In every great story, the protagonist leaves a familiar setting, perhaps a location, a relationship, or even a mindset.

The greatest stories of our lives are painted on the backdrop of the unknown.

It can be frightening to leave one setting for another – to answer the call of the wild, even when we are unhappy in our current setting – but it is only by doing so that we allow our story to unfold.

Stories that play out forever in the same setting are stories that linger at the threshold between the dynamic and the stagnant. That threshold becomes a place of quicksand where untold stories collect and are held captive.

If our stories are to unfold, we must have the confidence to walk into the setting that our Author has prepared for us, resting in the confidence that the pen never leaves His hand and He knows exactly what He is doing.

VIEW OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES

---

CHERI GRISSOM
Cheri Grissom works with music and media at Gateway UPC. Read her bio here.

---