“Don’t you want to know what happens next?” – Patti Callahan Henry
One of the authors I decided to check out over the weekend at the Savannah Book Fest was a woman by the name of Patti Callahan Henry. In the basement fellowship hall of the First Baptist Church, she told her story and then talked about something that stuck with me.
She said that she reads and writes to know what happens next. If anyone is a writer, they know that their characters can take on a life of their own. The story can turn on its own, and even as the author, you feel like you’re just along for the ride.
Henry was speaking about this and then she told a story about how a friend of hers was down and discouraged about the next step in her life, a move she was not excited about. Henry asked her friend, “But don’t you want to know what happens next?”
We connect with story. I believe it was how we were made. And there are a lot of people in our world who don’t have a lot of hope. They lack hope because they don’t see that this isn’t the end of the story. The story goes on past this tragedy, this heartbreak, this seemingly impossible situation. In a book, it is easy to see this truth. There is the next scene, the next chapter. We know the tragedy in the story isn’t the end. The story obviously goes on. Even at the end of the book, there is often an epilogue, or a happily ever after, or some sort of resolution that explains the reason for the tragedy and the story as a whole. Or it might be a cliffhanger or a “to be continued.” Those are all good books. We finish those books with a sigh of satisfaction or with anticipation of the next story in the series or both.
In life, there is always something that happens next. As Henry so beautifully explained, your birth was not the beginning of your story. It is fairly egocentric to think so. Your parents’ stories have a direct impact upon yours, as do so many others before them. And your story will have impact not only in this life but in the life of others after you are gone. Some of that you cannot control. Some of it you can.
Your story isn’t over. Not where it stands now, not while you’re still alive. If you believe, as I do, that there is a life after this one, and what we do now has repercussions for that next life, then your individual story goes on even after you die.
As an author, I want people to say, “I want to know what happens next!” One of the most encouraging things about people who have read and loved The Living Stone is they grab me and say, “When is the next one coming out? What happens next?” It is a sign of a good story.
In our individual lives, we should realize that where we are now, in our lives, is just a season, a chapter, in our lives. Different aspects of it may be discouraging, other parts full of life and joy. That is how it will be. But there is something next. If we believe, as I do, that the One ready to help us tell our story is a good Person and desires the best for us, then we can be comforted that this isn’t the end of the story, even if the current chapter looks like an impossible tragedy. We can say, with excitement, “I wonder what happens next.”
Peace.