Stories of our lives

This article was written for our February issue of our church newsletter, the Beacon.

I have been thinking about stories a lot lately. Actually I think about stories pretty much all the time. I think this is because I am a pastor and a preacher and I make my living in part by telling stories, stories of the Bible in particular. But I don’t tell stories just to tell stories, I tell stories in order to help folks (including myself) come to know God, through Jesus, better and hopefully help them form an enduring relationship with Him. That is how I came to belief in Christ and how I became and, am becoming still a follower, because folks have told me stories of Jesus. But also, and maybe most importantly, I came to faith because, not only did I hear the stories, but I saw the folks who told me those stories, actually live them out. These people were my grandmothers, a few pastors, certain people in my small groups at church, etc… We usually never come to faith on our own, but instead through people and stories.

We are all surrounded by stories. Our lives are a series of stories. Some are good stories and some are not so good stories. When we adopt not so good stories and allow them somehow to dominate our life (not usually consciously at first), we often get in trouble. There is a form of psychotherapy called “narrative therapy”. I am not a trained psychotherapist but it seems to me that some of the stories we believe and follow really have a negative impact in our lives. I am pretty sure we all have some of those stories in our lives – some have been spoken out loud and some have been somehow “understood” without being verbalized. Some of us have heard, “you are stupid”, “you are fat”, “you’ll never amount to anything” etc… early on and we still live with that deeply hurtful legacy. It often translates in an almost “self-prophesied” way” “I am stupid therefore I am helpless and nothing in my life is good and nothing in my life will ever change…” type scenario… I have seen a few folks coming to the church office to talk with me who seemed to live out this scenario. They remained in life-draining, abusive situation and nothing I offered - which from my standpoint could help – made a difference. They seemed to expect me to change their circumstances without any change or involvement on their part.

Jesus confronted a man who seemed to live out this “helpless scenario” in John 5:1-15. I love Jesus because he cuts to the chase. He tells the man stuck on the edge of the pool: “Do you want to get well?”

Not only some people live out negative stories but organizations – churches - do also. Churches – these communal organisms, these groupings of people, adopt negative stories which they end up living by – we are too old, too small, too this or not enough that – with predictable results of decline and even death. “Do you want to get well?” Jesus asks.

What I want to tell you, to remind you of – if you are stuck in a negative, sad, story, which saps the life and joy out of you - is that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). He came so that we could have abundant life (John 10:10) and he can help you rewrite your story and get unstuck. Trust in Him and give Him your life! And really follow Him!