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How to Use This Book

The Great Story of Jesus is more than a simple tale to be read through once or even multiple times. It is a journey through the deepest facets of reality. This story is meant not just to be read, but to be encountered. When we encounter it with an open heart and mind, it changes and transforms us. The book you hold in your hands is structured to facilitate that encounter. Each chapter takes a section or “Act” of the Great Story and breaks it open. Many of the chapters include suggestions for further reflection, providing a more structured way to “pray through” each of the Acts of the Great Story. There are also questions provided so you can journey through the story of Jesus with a small group.

To get the most out of this book, spend time in reflection and prayer as you complete each chapter before going on to the next one. There may be particular Acts of the Great Story that touch, move, or challenge you more than others. If that happens, take the time to offer that reaction to God in prayer and ask him what he is trying to communicate in that moment. When you finish the story of Jesus, you may want to go back and spend additional time with particular Acts of that story. Listen to that desire.

Like any journey, the more we approach with intentionality and the willingness to be present to what we experience, the more we change. In the Bible, Jesus sent out his disciples on a journey. They went in pairs and announced the presence of God’s kingdom to towns and villages. When he sent them, Jesus instructed them to “take nothing for the journey” (Luke 9:3). As you encounter the Great Story in your journey through this book, those same instructions are important. Take nothing for the journey—meaning take no expectations about how the Lord will communicate his love and life to you. If God normally comes to you in quiet and contemplation, don’t expect that he will do so in the same way as you go through this book. If God is often present to you in the midst of great activity or in grand experiences, don’t assume that this is how he will move in you as you encounter this story. If you’ve never really had an encounter with the Lord that you can identify, and you often feel that God doesn’t speak to you (or that he won’t speak), then let go of that expectation. You have begun to read this book. The rest is up to the One who led you here—so be willing to follow where he leads, even (especially!) if it’s not exactly where you expected.

This is the Great Story of God’s love for you. We know, through the testimony of Scripture and the lived history of the Church, that anyone who encounters Jesus with an open heart receives something. What the Lord desires to pour into your life as you encounter his story may be something entirely new for you. Take nothing for the journey. Leave behind all expectations so that you can receive precisely what he wants to give.

The Great Story is waiting—for you.