As Job’s story comes to a close, after losing everything and going through a personal version of Hell, the dust finally settles down and we find him having renewed his faith, found his footing with God, re-grounded in truth, and healed from everything that hurt him. The Bible never tells us how long that process took or what he had to do to get there. But life seems to have evened out for Job. And then this is how Job’s story ends:
Job 42: 12-13: 12: So the Lord blessed Job in the second half (which half?) of his life even more than in the beginning. For now he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 teams of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He also gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters. He named his first daughter Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land no women were as lovely as the daughters of Job. And their father put them into his will along with their brothers. Job lived 140 years after that, living to see four generations of his children and grandchildren. Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life.
Here's the lesson I learned in my life, and it was the one that put me over the edge on deciding to start a new church: Reason #4: Your SECOND STORY can be your best story.
Do I wish none of what I’ve described from my story would have happened to me? Of course! …But it did. And I’m not naieve about the reality that it happened to you, too. I have no doubt that if we sat down together across a table, you could tell me of all the ways you’ve experienced many of the same things I have. You’ve wondered if your story was over. You’ve wondered if God was against you, if He even cares, or if He even exists. You’ve wondered if it’s even possible that the future could be as good as the past when it looks so different than you thought the future would. You’ve had people leave you, too. You’ve had friends that you’ve lost as well. I get it. We all have.
I love that the Bible points out that the second half of Job’s life was even better than the first – that’s when the country song got played backwards and he got the house back, the truck back, the kids back, the farm back, and the dog back. I take a lot of hope from how Job’s story ended. I want that on my gravestone: “Here Lies Seth…he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life.” But do you know what one of my favorite parts about this ending is?
It’s when it says that Job wrote his daughters into his will. In Job’s day, that wasn’t a thing. Women weren’t written into the will. The legacy of the father was passed to the sons. But in the second half of his life – in his second story – Job recognized something really important: That the most important thing he could pass on from this life wasn’t his farm, or the livestock, or the money, or anything else that he possessed. The most important part of Job’s legacy wouldn’t be any of the stuff that came to him by faith – it would be the people he built with his faith. Even the one’s who by law should have been left out.
When I was at my lowest and most depressed and most anxious, the one thing that got me through it was the thought that I need to get better not for me… but I need to get better for my kids.
They need their dad healthy. They need me whole – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And the best gift I can give my kids, my greatest legacy, is that I live out my second story in a way that when they encounter hard things in their life, they know they can get through it because their dad did. Their grandpa did. Their uncle did. Their son did. Their friend did. I’ve come to the conclusion that the greatest thing that I’ll leave on this earth isn’t how much faith I have and what I survived. It won’t be how much I accumulate or how much the world sees that “Seth bounced back.” The greatest thing I’ll leave on earth will be who – not what – WHO – I built with my faith.
That’s why at Second Story, we talk about the people and issues that too often go unseen in the church. We’re talk about what God has to say to people going through church hurt, people who are single, people who are living out their walk with God in isolation, people who feel judged by Christians, people who have identity issues, people who are wondering if they have a place in God’s Kingdom. We talk about what God would have to say to people who feel like life has left them out, and about the fact that God has written them into the will. The people nobody thought God would – including me. Including you. We’re included and we have a story to tell.
Most scholars think that in terms of authorship, Job is actually the oldest book in the Bible. You know what that means?
It means that everything that happened to Job, and everything that happened to me – where someone started off life thinking everything was going to go great, and then something happened – a trauma, a hurt, an event – and it sent them down a path where they lost themselves so deeply that God had to meet them and restore them and redeem them – everything about THIS story? It’s the oldest story in the world. God has been in the Second Story business from the beginning.
The day of my anxiety attack on the side of the dirt road was a full decade ago now, and though I never did move to California, life today looks vastly different than it did 10-years-ago.
Thanks to a family who loves me, friends who believe in me, countless hours with a highly skilled counselor, and a God who pursued me relentlessly, I am more me today than I have been in years – maybe ever. Being a dad to my kids is my favorite thing in the world and brings me incredible joy. My relationships with my family and friends are a foundational bedrock for me. I am physically stronger and healthier than I have been in my entire adult life, and my faith is stronger, more vibrant, and more real to me today than it’s ever been.
While I still teach middle-school to pay the bills, I have returned to ministry. My first story didn’t end the way I thought it would. But if God can help me turn the page and write another story – a second story – He can do it for anybody.
That’s why I started Second Story Church. Because everyone needs a second story. And a third! And a fourth! And a fifth! That’s the driving force behind everything we’re about.
I didn’t come back to ministry to play church. I came back because that’s the mission – we’re trying to start a movement of people who understand that God gave Job and so many others in the Bible a second story, and they built up other people with their faith who had a second story, and the process kept repeating itself over, and over, and over, and over all the way to my life. He did it for me. And I promise you, if he did it for me, He’ll do it for you, too.
There are a lot of reasons to start a new church. These four are mine: Nobody is above the attack. Everybody’s first story comes to an end. You can get through it, but not alone. And your second story can be your best story. There are so many reasons to quit on life. Quit on faith. Quit on church, and people, and God, and trying again. If you really want to find a reason to quit, life will hand you a new one every day.
But Psalm 150:6 says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord…” That means that if you’re still breathing, then God is still writing your story. Be very careful about judging your story when you’re in the middle of it. God does his best work in the second story.