Q: How can these ancient stories in the Bible help us in modern times?
When we study the cast of characters we see how people turn to God in the toughest times of their lives. These stories are so important because they remind us that when we don’t have anywhere else to go, we can go where we should have gone when we felt like we had everywhere to go--we can go to God. God allows us to get to the end of our rope because at the end of our rope we find that He is waiting on us there.

Q: Many Americans are experiencing tough times through job loss and financial stress this year. How can the experiences of biblical characters provide encouragement for modern readers?
The stories of people in the Bible are relevant to us because they went through what we go through. They went through financial challenges; they went through political change; they went through issues of storms of geography and storms of theology and storms of personality. Everything that we go through, they went through. And so when we see how God interacted with them and their difficulties, we see how God interacts with us. And sometimes the result is a bit convicting that God challenges us, or chastises us; sometimes the answer is very comforting--how God helps us and God encourages us. But, that’s the reason we love these people in the Bible because their stories are our stories, and how God interacted with them is how God interacts with us.

Q: This past year has been filled with transition for you and your family: managing serious health issues, changing your role at Oak Hills Church, becoming empty-nest parents. How have you and Denalyn seen God work through these circumstances?
Somebody said if you don’t want change, go to a soda machine because you will find change everywhere else. And that’s true; life is full of changes. We’ve found that in our own family over the last couple of years. I’ve had some health issues--thankfully I’m feeling and doing much better now. We’ve had some family changes--healthy changes but changes none the less--of one girl going to college, one girl getting engaged, another going off to graduate school; so a lot of transition going on in our family. But, we have found that God is that one unchanging center around which we can hover and to which we can tether. When we do that, our days seem to discover some stability, when we forget that our days are disruptive. I would say over the last 24 months I’d give myself a B minus in this; some days I’ve done well, other days I haven’t. But even on the days I haven’t, God has done His part. He’s been faithful, and in changing times He never changes.

Q: Each of these character studies could be called an epitaph for each person. What would you want on your epitaph, Max?
The most compelling Epitaph that I have ever seen I found in a south Texas cemetery. There was no date of birth, no date of death. Just the name, Grace Louellen Smith and these words: “Sleeps, but rests not. Loved, but was loved not. Died as she lived, alone.” I’ve often wondered--did she write those words or just live them? Was that her idea? Someone else’s? And reading her epitaph makes us think of the epitaph that we would want in our own lives to summarize our lives. I think the book Cast of Characters gives us a glimpse of the different epitaphs that would be used to describe some of the characters, but the ultimate question would be what epitaph would be used to describe our lives? I know the one I would like to describe mine: “Life is short and then its past and only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Click here for more information on Cast of Characters: Common People in the Hands of an Uncommon God by Max Lucado (Thomas Nelson, 2008).

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