In 1977, something broke open in the hearts of a generation of young men. What was it?

Before Star Wars, that generation didn't have a name for the ache: the sense that you're living the wrong life, farming moisture when you were built for something else. Luke Skywalker gave it a shape. A grumpy uncle. A binary sunset. A name that didn't fit the life he'd been handed.

This is the first episode in our new three-part series on the Original Trilogy. JP traces three ideas buried in the first film that still hit as hard as they did in 1977: the ache of longing, the terrifying weight of destiny, and George Lucas's own surprising conviction that none of it means anything without faith. Along the way: what Obi-Wan's death actually costs him, why C-3PO is the first one to see who Luke really is, and what it means to stand at the end of your life and see the difference between who you were and who you could have been.

Part of our series working through the stories that shape us at Story Chapel, a Sunday morning gathering in Cincinnati where we read fantasy, sci-fi, and mythology looking for the Gospel hiding inside the story.

You don't need to believe anything to belong here. Just bring your curiosity.