Much Ado about Nothing, Oliver
Twist, Heart of Darkness, The Odyssey, The Bible ... What do these
all have in common? Aren't they all stories that were written long
ago, and yet continue to compel us?
The whole idea of 'Story' has
fascinated me for a long time. I am an avid reader, something I
credit eleven years of home-schooling for. I love how stories relate
to my own life... how they open up previously unthought-of
possibilities... I especially love biographies, like Jungle Pilot
(Nate Saint's story), Kisses from Katie (Katie Davis' story),
and my latest read, An Autobiography of George Muller. These
real-life stories inspire me because they actually happened. Fiction
authors can construe any unlikely scenario and insert it into their
plot.
However, I like fiction as well.
Artful authors can write stories that speak truth into difficult
situations and question societal expectations, even if they have no
single person's story to tell. For me, Deadline
by Randy Alcorn was one such thought-provoking read. Another good
book is A million miles in a thousand years
by Don Miller, which not only stimulated by brain cells but also
helped to shape my love and appreciation of 'Story' itself.
I am not
entirely sure what is so compelling about story, except that maybe it
is wired into us . According to one source, it seems we may possess some
'story-telling' gene that enables us to look into the future and
analyze the past, relating everything together into a cohesive story. (I am trying to unearth the link to where I learned that, but am having some difficulties. I heard it on a movie interview with a professional story-teller, but can't quite remember where. If you are interested in this, contact me and I will try to find it and send it to you.)
Maybe we are
attracted by 'Story' because we are part of a story ourselves, told
by a story-telling God who made us in His image. Maybe 'Story'
speaks to us because we are living it as part of God's comprehensive
story of Redemption..
I love how
everyone has their own subplot to relate in this overarching story
that God is telling in the world. In every boring face that I see
is a challenge to unearth whatever interesting story it hides. At
one ladies' Christmas program, I found myself next to an amiable
enough, well-dressed lady. We had barely started into our desserts,
and I was already bored by the small talk. So I decided to show
interest in her as a person and the story she had to tell. It turned
out that she is a Christian now, but her ancestors were Mennonites in
Russia. During WWII, Lenin sent her grandfather to a Siberian
concentration camp because he refused to fight as a soldier. Her
grandfather survived, however, by escaping with the lumber that he
loaded onto ships headed for England... What a story! It turned out
to be an interesting evening after all.
I like to hear
people's stories, and not only because I find it personally
interesting. It also excites me to see how God is working in the
world—it is like reading the God's story of redemption hot off the
press! As we share our stories, we get a better picture of who this
God is that we serve and what His kingdom looks like. In Ephesians
3, Paul prays that we would begin to know, with all our fellow
believers, what is the height and breadth and depth and height of
Christ's love. Christ's love is sooo big that it takes all the
believers to even begin to understand it! I like to think of it in
terms of the story of the blind men who wanted to find out what an
elephant is like. They all went up to an elephant and felt it. The
first felt its tail and thought, “Ahhh. An elephant is long and
thin, like a rope.” The second felt is massive side: “I see, an
elephant is broad and flat like a wall.” The third felt the
beast's leg, and concluded that “an elephant is strong and round
like a pillar.” Then they spent the rest of the day arguing over
what an elephant was like. By themselves, none of them had the whole
picture. Yet, if they combined their experiences, they would begin
to grasp the magnitude and nature of the beast that we call
'elephant.'
On this blog,
I want to open up and share my story within God's story. I hope that
as I share how God is penning my life, it would encourage you in your
story and give you a fuller picture of our awesome Creator God. I
don't know what this coming year will look like, but I know that it
will be exciting because it is has a purpose and a goal, and it is
told by a Master Story-teller.
