By Marrton Dormish, EE founder

What does the name “Everyday Epics” mean? The word “epic” can be used as an adjective or a noun, and according to Dictionary.com it means:

For us, “epics” don’t just apply to fiction, myth or folk tales. They apply to real life. Present-day epics happen all around us every day, except too many of them go unsung and unnoticed. We hope to change all that.

“…one can scarcely improve on the formula Once upon a time.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, Tree and Leaf)

How, then, do our relatively small stories fit within the larger story of humanity, if there is one? That’s obviously a big question with lots of complex philosophical answers, but suffice it to say that, for the purposes of explaining our perspective, we draw much of our inspiration from a particular guiding story.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (the book of Genesis)

According to Genesis, the story doesn’t begin with us, but with creation.

“The LORD God planted an orchard in the east, in Eden; and there he placed the man he had formed…to care for it and maintain it…The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.”

“…God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them,male and female he created them. God blessedthem and saidto them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it!Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I now give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the entire earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food…It was so. God saw all that he had made – and it was very good!” (the book of Genesis)

According to this guiding narrative, we’re creatures made by God, made in God’s image, a crowning masterpiece. We are meant to rule, which contrary to our later autocratic and destructive tendencies, means to tend and steward and care for each other and God’s good Creation. This narrative was first told to a multitude of escaped slaves wandering in an unforgiving desert, a people their former Egyptian masters and new frightened neighbors called “Habiru” or “Hebrews.” Led by the prophet-statesman Moses, the Hebrews were learning to call themselves “Israel,” which means “struggles with God.” The story scarred onto their backs, the story they had lived for generations was characterized by mis-rule, by divinely sanctioned oppression visited on the poor, by the helpless made into fodder for an empire, by a ruler bent on hoarding power and erecting monuments to himself.

Through this “new” creation story, they heard that the world came about not from the bloody warfare or bodily emissions of deities, but from special proclamations of creative power and potential, and that humanity existed not simply to provide food and amusement for the gods, but to subdue and rule and shape the good world in creative service to the true Creator, the High King of heaven and earth.

They heard the later call to their forefather Abraham, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you. Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing…and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name.”

Though they wandered in a scorching desert of corporate and economic uncertainty, their story of beginnings told them they were heirs of the mantle given in Eden and later offered to Abraham, a mantle that gave worth and value and meaning to all the people and to each individual, demonstrating that the actions of one could affect the many. Having been redeemed through a great exodus, the children of Israel discovered they lived in an unfolding story of beginnings, in which they were now called to be a light to all the world, to be a signpost of healing and wholeness in a world turned upside down.

This story’s hopeful notes echo even into the 21st century, having reached into our deserts of uncertainty to inspire the birth and reform of nations, as well as the rebirth of individuals and communities. Whether we fit into this narrative of hope as modern-day children of Israel, as followers of God in the way of Jesus, or as people who arrive at the worth and uniqueness of people and of our world some other way, this is our story.

We are all “image-bearers” called to care for the world around us and for the needs of others as well as ourselves. It’s why we exist! It fundamentally changes how we should look at our stories and ultimately how we live our lives.

“I’ve discovered I’ve got this preoccupation with ordinary people pursued by large forces.” (Steven Spielberg)

For myself as a follower of God in the way of Jesus, I find this large story embedded in Jesus’ message, “Now is the time…The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the good news,” and potently embodied in his life when he healed the sick, fed the hungry and challenged oppression. Jesus of Nazareth was many things, not least a prophet following in the footsteps of earlier prophets. He heralded the arrival of a new age on earth, a new chapter in the continuing story of the ages, which points primarily not to escape from this world, but to the whole grand project of reclamation and healing we are meant to work toward here on earth. The rabbi from Nazareth called people to give their lives to that project, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary that it would or could never happen. He referred to the life wrapped up with that crazy hope as the “eternal life,” or as the philosopher and theologian Dallas Willard translates it in The Divine Conspiracy, “the eternal kind of life.”

Regardless of your faith perspective, hopefully you can agree with the values portrayed in this narrative — the goodness and potential of creation, the value of every human being, the hope that another, better world and way of life is possible. May we allow those values to influence what we consider to be good news and shape how we see ourselves, our lives and the world around us.