Every Story Follows the Same Basic Plot III: Striving

See part II
See part I

Once the Shalom is shattered, then follows the striving. The story continues by either a striving to restore Shalom in a false way, sometimes by killing the pain of Shalom lost (addictions, etc).

In Walk The Line, Johnny Cash looks first to his music, then to drugs. In the Lord of the Rings, many in the story want the power of the Ring itself to use to restore things. In the story of man, God provides a covenant and a Law as a tutor to the time of ultimate redemption comes, but man puts hope in law-keeping at best, his own ability at worst.

In the lives of individuals, the striving comes in various forms. It may be religion, it may be drugs or alcohol, sex, work, living vicariously through their children, et al. Often it is by trying to control something in someway. Usually it is really a form of distraction.

Brennan Manning has labeled this kind of striving as playing the "Impostor". John Eldredge labels a person in this state as a "poser". This stage of the story is when we try to deny, cover over, or fake our way through our wound. Often the characters in the story are even unaware of the falsehood of their approach.

See Part IV