Stories are powerful. Throughout our existence, people of all types and all places have told stories. Today, stories come at us from all corners. Television, movies, books, papers, magazines and now Internet and mobile devices reach us with stories.

While some may see all those stories as just mindless entertainment, a story is rarely just a story. We don't always quite understand how stories shape our values, desires and sense of context. They do this by taking us out of a guarded frame of mind and instructing and inspiring us as our imagination longs to know what happens next. Screenplay expert Robert McKee writes, "Given the choice between trivial material brilliantly told versus profound material badly told, an audience will always choose the trivial told brilliantly."

One way to see how much story affects your life is to think about how often you refer to a television show, a movie, a book, etc. for context. How often do you say, "This reminds me of that scene in (fill in the blank)"? Seeing the power of story to shape us, we can't take our entertainment choices for granted. We have to be active participants in discerning whether the brilliantly told stories that surround us promote the trivial or the profound.

In one of their many conversations about literature, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien recognized that all great stories owe their power to the greatest story ever told -- God's heroic intervention on behalf of His beloved. In his book, The Divine Drama, Kurt Bruner explains that life is best understood through God's story. He writes:

It is a story that transcends and explains our experiences, our questions, our deepest yearnings, our greatest hopes," he writes. "It is a story that includes a cherished beloved, a seductive villain, a hero's journey, and a broken heart. It begins with "Once upon a time" and ends with "happily ever after." It is a story within which our own can be told.

Boundless encourages readers to engage the world of stories around us in light of the larger story God calls us to participate in.

For a complete nuts and bolt review of movies, television shows and music, visit our favorite media site, PluggedIn.