Plot Twisting

I’m a big fan of plot twists. Bold, new stories that make no sense when you look at all the preceding pages.

Bold, new stories that make all the sense in the world as you gain distance and traction.

I don’t mean plot twists for the sheer shock factor, a shake-up, a reckless reshuffling. The sweet spot, a more purposed reshuffling.

A more focused story.

After all, what is Luke Skywalker’s journey as Jedi, a hero, without the deeply personal plot twist that his greatest external enemy, the dark side, is now represented by his own father? The same blood, the same beckonings coursing through his veins?

My life has featured a lot of plot twists I never saw coming. Especially these last two years. It’s been brutal.

It’s also been necessary for the furthering of my story, I now realize. A story that wasn’t going anywhere. Stuck in a sleepy, apathetic comfort.

Alas, it can take a while to see the purpose and beauty on the other side of a plot twist. A long, long while. I saw others’ happiness and wondered where mine went and if it would ever return.

But through all the dips and twisting, I’m uncovering more of the beauty in life, in nature, in seasons, in relationships, in friends, in family, in Jesus. Seeing it and feeling it and expressing gratefulness for it more than ever.

I’m aiming not to take beauty for granted anymore. Losing Ahh this summer has taught me how fleeting life is. How fleeting relationships are. How fleeting beauty is. How fleeting the old story is before the new one descends.

If only this sunset could come linger forever.

Alas, the sun rises and falls on the hero and the villain; the ready and the not ready; the prodigal and the other brother.

I’ve been toying all summer with the idea of a plot twist. Of boldly going where no Tom has gone before. A plot twist perhaps manifesting in a literal change of scenery, but also one manifesting in new, creative ventures and collaborations: books and podcasts and videos and ministries and further travels.

But to this question I keep returning: does the plot twist move the story forward? Does the story get more — or less — focused?

As my summer dwindles, as my road trip crosses its final lines, it remains to be seen what plot twists await me. What new adventures and projects will soon unfold, this year into the next.

I’ve been praying. I’ve been talking to others. I’ve been seeking and waiting in these waning days of summer.

My gut feelings are growing stronger, and I’m seeing more of the horizon forming ahead. Forming here at my feet.

Sometimes a plot twist means leaving, a physical departing.

And sometimes it means staying. A more of the same, but deeper and livelier.

Bring on the plot twists, and bring on the steady and flowing, the close of one chapter with the turning of a new one.

Here’s to the plot twists coming.

Here’s to the onward.