I love a great story! Last night at our church our pastor urged us to tell our stories of hope, healing, and experiencing the love of God. He referred us to Luke 8, where we learn that Jesus healed a man whose life was a wreck, to say the least. When he was restored and whole, Jesus told him - “Go back to your family and tell them everything God has done for you.”
Taking our cue from that message, several of us shared snippets of our life journey, reflecting on the goodness of the Lord and hopefully many were blessed.
Thanksgiving offers a unique opportunity to share our stories. Americans will travel to join with friends and family for the feast. The conversations will likely start out with chats about the weather, football teams, and then as we grow comfortable, we will move on to our personal tales. Some will be the often-told stories, family legends really, that make us laugh and cry. Some will be about heroic achievements. Others will bring up embarrassing memories of accidents, spills, and scrapes with the law.
Most of stories will have been told before and will be told again. It’s what we humans do. Our stories will make us laugh and cry, but they are more than entertaining.
Stories define and
explain us.
The more of your story I know, the better I understand who you are. Authentic
stories, told without embellishment or editing, will reveal the triumphs and
failures, the hits and misses, of life. Being able to talk about who we were,
who we are, and who we hope to become is part of growing
emotionally and spiritually. The power of story is amazing. When a person is
loved enough to know they can tell their whole story, they can find redemption,
forgiveness, hope, and change that flows from the inside out. That is why 12
step recovery groups like Alcoholics Anonymous create safe places
for people to tell their real story, not the “fake news” that perpetuates a lie
about life. The truth is liberating, but leaves us vulnerable, so we need a
loving place to tell it.
The best churches are those that are a loving place full of authentic people who are finding the way through daily life with God’s grace and the love of His Church not a place where everybody is putting on their best face and concealing their humanity! In a place that is filled with love and acceptance through Christ, one generation passes along the stories that encourage the next. One person who has found God’s grace and restoration gives hope to another. Yes, this is the power of STORY.
Sometimes we want to change our story, concealing the ugly parts or magnifying the moments of success. That’s an ancient sin called – Pride! It makes hypocrites of us. Jesus urges us to be authentic; our ‘yes’ a simple ‘yes;’ our ‘no’ a simple ‘no!’ Like the man whose eyes He healed we need only say “I once was blind, now I see.’ (John 9)
So, what’s your story?
Have you
written a fiction about yourself that has enslaved you?
Have you believed a lie that somebody told you, a falsehood that controls you
to this day?
Jesus says that He, the Truth, will free us to live- fully, richly, and
joyfully – people who are saved from our sins, sealed by the Spirit, and living
for His purposes. There is no better story to be written!
I’m looking forward to some stories on Thanksgiving. And I’ll tell a few myself. I hope that in them all there is a thread of faith, an echo of the love of Christ.
Take this
word from the Word to heart and may you be a person full of gratitude.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
2 Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out!
Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies.
3 For he has gathered the exiles from many lands,
from east and west, from north and south.
4 Some wandered in the wilderness,
lost and homeless.
5 Hungry and thirsty, they nearly died.
6 “Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
and he rescued them from their distress.
7 He led them straight to safety,
to a city where they could live.
8 Let them praise the Lord for his great love
and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
9 For he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.
--Psalm 107
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