Have you ever watched a film where, right near the end, you find out a new piece of information that turns all you thought you knew about the plot and flips it on its head?

I think here of The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Shutter Island, or The Prestige.

In each, you get just one additional sliver of information and suddenly scenes that didn’t quite make sense now do and other scenes that did make sense suddenly mean something entirely different. And if the movie’s done well, it was all right in front of your eyes the whole time.

If that can happen watching a movie, is it possible it can happen in our lives?

Is it possible a new piece of information—right in front of you—might introduce a plot twist that changes how you’re viewing the way some story in your life is going?

I think it is.

Over my next few posts, I want to share a few subtle truths that many of us miss, and though I’m no M. Night Shyamalan, maybe one of them will change how you see a story you’ve been living or a battle you’ve been fighting.

So here we go.

Plot 1: You’ve got a struggle you can’t seem to overcome.

• You drank too much again last night and have a splitting headache this morning.
• A porn habit is threatening your marriage but you keep going back to it.
• You feel weak and overweight and haven’t exercised since the beginning of January.

Whatever it is for you, at first glance, stuff like this looks like evidence against you, reason to believe the story is headed for more failure.

Plot Twist:
The pain you experience from falling reveals you’re not made to do what you’ve been doing.

Think about it: If the Author of your story created you to keep falling, if you’re designed for this, then each fall and failure would work for you, not against you.

• Drinking too much or too often would result in a better functioning body, not a hangover.
• Consuming porn would result in quality, fulfilling relationships, not isolation and fears of commitment.
• Eating gobs of sugar and fat would tone muscle and give you energy, not slow you down and make you weak.

You get the picture.

God gave us the capacity to experience pain (including guilt) as a way to let us know something’s wrong that needs fixing. Without this we’d likely leave our hand on the hot stove, stand in the freezing cold without a coat, or continue to fall into sin without realizing there’s a problem.

Of course, realizing there’s a problem isn’t the same as being saved from the problem. But believing that your habitual sins are just who you are or that you’ll never change will certainly lead to more failure.

The pain you feel when you fall reveals God didn’t create you to. It reveals you were actually made to walk. Or run.

Or fly.

Practice believing this and see if the plot doesn’t turn.

I love a good story. What’s your favorite with a great plot twist?

Josh