Storyteller

In my last blog, I wrote about captivity and about my desire to be a part of setting people free - more specifically about how my calling fits into the greater framework of Christ's calling as found in Isaiah 58.  While still a work in progress, some things are beginning to take shape ever so slowly.  I still feel like I am walking into the fog, but occasionally a glimmer will be provided, a sight on the horizon, a quick picture of what lies ahead.  I think this is God's grace; His providence in my life, urging me forward and reminding me that great things lie ahead.

I like telling stories.  In college, my roommate Paul and I would go back and forth telling stories and entertaining ourselves and others along the way.  Stories are powerful.  Inside of a story lies truth, but that truth is packaged in a narrative which allows us to project ourselves into the story, relate with the truth found there and more readily digest truth into our lives.  Jesus used stories when describing life with God and in relating everyday life to the larger story (metanarrative) that overarches the story of humanity.  I have an inkling that storytelling may be a part of what lies ahead for me.  Not so much in the traditional sense of the word, I don't think there are any jobs out there as a storyteller, but framing truth is something I am very interested in. 

When someone shares their story something powerful happens.  The teller and the listener are somehow intrinsically connect in a new way - to tell your story is to expose yourself - to expose your innermost longings and desires.  To tell your story is to risk and where risk dwells, beauty follows closely behind.  I say this because in each of us lies a story of paramount importance - an unfolding of events Divinely authored and played out on a stage that is encompasses our lives.  Many of us don't embrace this story; instead we fight it, struggling against our reality because the miss the beauty than runs so deeply within it.

This morning I am spending some time reflecting on my story because as I look ahead and strive towards something greater, something better, something life giving I am reminded by the voice deep within that the best way to determine my path ahead is to know understand my trajectory.  That trajectory takes into effect where I have been, where I am at, and to where I am pointed.  I all too readily forget where I have come from, forget the provision of God, suffering from a sort of selective amnesia where somehow the events of my life get reinterpreted in such a way that I am left to suspect I am alone in this venture as I have been all along.  This gross misrepresentation takes place when I forget my story, when I fail to remember the times I have been rescued, the times I have been redeemed and made new and the times when I was hurting and broken and in need of simple kindness and gentle love.  I need to remember - my life and my future depends on my ability to remember what has happened - more pointedly to remember how He has happened over and over in my life, and undeniably so.  This is the overarching story we tie into, the profound and endless love of God demonstrated through Christ, revealed daily, and determined solely by His grace.

 Stories are how Jesus taught us to understand God.  Stories connect us.  Stories are powerful and everyone has one.  How will yours read?