The gospel story has the power to move, change, and fortify us only when we look at Jesus. Then we will truly receive the happiness we’ve always wanted—not by getting all our earthly desires met, but by getting him. Then we will receive the freedom we’ve always wanted, not by running away from Jesus, but by being drawn closer to him. Then we will get the identity we’ve always wanted, not by obsessing over who we want to be, but by knowing who we already are in Christ. Then we will know how to live morally, not by making up our own rules, but by following our created design to “act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Then we will know how to handle the power we’ve been given, not by hoarding or ignoring it, but by giving it away in service of others, just as Jesus did for us.

Then we will know that the solution to our problems is not found in science, but that real, lasting truth is found in Jesus. We can hold on to hope in the direction that history is going, not because we always see everything clearly, but because we know where it will all end up with Jesus. Because of Jesus, our own stories find their place inside this story.

My Dad has been gone for a while now. I thought I would never gain access to his wisdom, heart, kindness, or encouragement again. But as I rooted myself in the story of Jesus, reminding myself of his promises to me, I began to marvel at how the absence of the things I’d wanted in life—not just my father, but the things I thought I absolutely had to have—has ultimately revealed the presence of all that Jesus had to offer the whole time. I just hadn’t noticed it before.

It was only after my father was gone that I realized how often I went to my dad instead of to my heavenly Father in prayer. Since Dad’s death, I’ve called out more to Jesus, and I’ve needed him more. The truth is, he was always there; I just wasn’t seeking him to the same degree.

Isn’t it a wonder that God can take our suffering and sadness and weave them into a larger story of hope and redemption? He uses what most hurts us, not to signal the end of our lives, but to reveal all that he has in store for us. In what areas of your life have you put off seeking him because you’ve been seeking someone or something else? What do you need to let die? What cultural narrative, what false hope, what insufficient story are you clinging to that needs to die? And what could be revealed by the absence of what you thought you had to have? Could it be what you could have in Jesus?

I wonder now how many insights, comforts, sweetnesses, wonders, and joys I could have experienced in Christ if I hadn’t sought my father’s insight, Netflix’s comfort, or other people’s approval, or my own success first. There is nothing wrong with seeking a father’s insight, entertainment from Netflix, approval, or success in the right way. But we must place those things in the right order of importance in our hearts. That was my problem.

Perhaps, as was the case for me, the absence of what you miss most will become the way for you to see the presence of Jesus. Maybe the moment you think your story has gone off script is the time it’s being joined to God’s greater story of redemption and renewal. It’s a story that invites us to bring our deepest sorrows to a Savior who meets us in our grief and then does something about it on the cross.

Seeing Jesus changes our story. If you place Jesus at the center of your life, his presence will not make the absences you feel go away, but you will find that the things that once gave you joy, the things you miss or that may be gone forever, have their ultimate home in him. Will you plunge your sadness, sorrows, and disappointments into his love?

Taken from The Stories We Live By: Seven Cultural Myths That Fail Us and the Story That Never Will by Michael Keller and Timothy Keller. Copyright © September 2026 by Zondervan. Used by permission of Zondervan, www.zondervan.com.