Tell Me A Story

In our family we tell stories on each other at our birthday celebrations. We usually either get to pick out what the menu will be for that day or choose the restaurant we will all go to for our birthday bash. It’s been a lot of fun and there’s some favorite stories that we tell on each other. Like when one son ate the only two daffodils to bloom that year, or when another son had an imaginary friend, etc.

We like our stories and my guess is so do you. How do you know if you’re telling a story? Well, have you told it more than once? Can you tell it … or most of it … with very little prompting?

I went to training for a mission trip to Belize where we will be sharing God’s stories using a Chronological Bible Story Cloth. You see most of the world doesn’t read, even if they did have access to a Bible in their own language. So how do we share the words of Christ? How do we tell them of God’s great love for them? We do it the way Jesus did … we tell them stories.

Stories are easy to remember and they evoke emotions that help our memories retain the information. Stories make it easy to place yourself in the moment where the action is. We here in America LOVE stories, hence Hollywood and TV’s ability to make so much money! We will pay regularly to get a dose of a good story.

The Bible is the greatest story ever told. You have introduction to the setting of the story, there is rising action, climax, and falling action, and then there is resolution or catastrophe. And then notice that there are many sub-stories within the overall big story. Your story also has an introduction, rising action, climax, and falling action, … and yet to be told the resolution or catastrophe.

We tend to tell stories to one another to share our lives and what we find important, or funny, or interesting, or ??? But at this training I went off in my own little world for a minute and got to thinking about what kinds of things that I share with other people. And realized that much of what I share doesn’t really edify them, nor does it edify me. All too often it is told to either make me look good (pride) or to gain sympathy (again pride) … it’s all about me. Which got me to wondering how could I reframe my stories so that they were all about Him? Could I make it a point to make Him the hero of all my stories? To put the focus on Him? So that when my children and my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren think about their interactions with me they can’t help but think about Him … ? Could I become a great storyteller?

Another thought that came to me while I was at the training was … How many stories do I know? How many of us know enough of the Bible that we could tell 20 – 30 – 40 Bible stories and remember the point of the story? How many of us could see the Scarlet Thread that is woven through all the stories of the Bible? …The red thread of sacrifice and love that reaches its climax at the death of Christ and will be finally resolved victoriously at His return? Oh that we would become a story-telling people … telling THE story that could change every life we encounter! God make it so … Amen!