Christianity is a story. My life is a story. Everything is a story.
Pay attention today to any slice of this world--see and hear what stories are being told. Watch a TV show or see a movie? Stories. Most songs--whether Kanye West or Johann Bach--are stories set with a tune. All advertisements are stories--stories about what I could do or be if I only had that product. If you're working right now, your company has a story--where it envisions itself in its industry and how it plans to get there. Our economic crisis is an unfolding story, the ending of which is not clear.
My life is an unfinished story, too. If someone asks me how my day went, chances are I'll answer by telling a story, capturing major events and emotions. I will create an arc: set the scene, relay dramatic events, and bring it to some sort of conclusion. If someone asks us how our life will turn out, we might offer a narrative of the future decorated by dreams and hopes... or fears.
Human beings are storytelling creatures. Stories are how we process what is real. We are drawn to stories that are beautiful and useful. But we are also drawn to stories that deceive us--that seem alluring at first listen, but prove damaging or destructive as they unfold over the span of days, months, sometimes years.
What stories are important to you now? Why? Which stories have you memorized and made a part of your own story? Are the stories you internalize beautiful or useful? How do you know?
Every church is an ongoing story, of which every member plays a role. Church is a living story that draws its life from the story we tell every year during Holy Week. If you go to church next week, on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, listen to the story. Pay attention to where it seems beautiful, useful, even deceptive. Is this a story worth taking in, making part of your own story? In all of its turns and emotion, mystery and terror, where does this story meet yours?
I love the connection of stories in our lives and the story of passion week. In the earlier stages of seeking a call, I had this realization that I needed to "sell" myself and in doing so come up with a brief and consistent story of my life. I always thought that this was inauthentic in a way because it would leave out so much of the nuance of my life. But as I have pondered it more, I realize that this story is the way in. It's a starting point for people. I also realized that it is exactly what we do when we read scripture and tell the story of the early church. It's not in full detail, and we have a couple versions of it. But it is a story that was written down in a concise way to make it easier to "sell"--or should I say evangelize. It is the way in for us to begin to tell of our own experience in all of its nuance. Thanks for the reminder of the importance of the story.
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