The Story That Was Already There

Skaters at the León skatepark in Nicaragua—friendships and everyday moments that would eventually help inspire Ride the Fire.

A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps. Proverbs 16:9 (KJV)

Two books were now behind me.

That was something I had never expected to be able to say.

The Little Chef had begun almost by accident. Brandy had given me the idea, and somewhere along the way, I discovered that I could actually take an idea and turn it into a book.

Challenge of the Heart was different. This time, I had made the deliberate decision to write again. Finishing that second book proved something to me.

The first one had not been a fluke.

But now I faced the question again.

Would there be another book?

And if there was, what would I write about?

I could have simply invented another story. There were certainly plenty of possibilities. But something had changed. I wanted the next book to mean something more to me personally.

The answer, as it turned out, had been around me for years.

I have lived in León, Nicaragua, for many years. During that time, I became friends with a number of young men who shared a passion for something I knew very little about when I first met them.

Skateboarding.

I had watched them skate through the streets of León. I had listened to their stories. I learned how difficult it had been for the first generation of skaters in a city where skateboards, equipment, and places to skate were not easy to find.

They shared boards.

They built their own ramps.

They fell, got back up, and tried again.

And somewhere along the way, they built something much bigger than a place to skateboard.

They built a community.

I had known these young men for years. Some had become good friends. I knew their struggles, their determination, and something of the history they had created.

Yet I had never thought of any of it as a book.

Sometimes we search for what comes next while overlooking what God has already placed around us.

We expect the answer to arrive as some dramatic new idea. We look ahead, wondering what door will open next, while perhaps failing to notice the people, experiences, and relationships that are already part of our lives.

That was what happened to me.

The story I was looking for wasn't somewhere in the distance.

It was already there.

I simply needed to recognize it.

That realization eventually became my third book, Ride the Fire.

But looking back, I think there was another lesson waiting for me in the process.

“A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”
— Proverbs 16:9 (KJV)

God doesn't always have to bring something new into our lives in order to lead us somewhere new.

Sometimes He asks us to look again at what He has already given us.

A friendship.

An experience.

A talent we haven't used.

A person whose story deserves to be heard.

An opportunity we once considered ordinary.

We may be asking God, “What's next?”

Perhaps sometimes His answer is:

“Look at what is already in front of you.”