The Importance of a Story

Years ago,  I sat across the desk of a renowned theologian who said, "Tell me your story and I will understand you." He went on to say that by listening to people's stories we learn who they really are, what's most important to them, their passions, their dark secrets and their soaring hopes.

I recently finished Pat Conroy's book, South of Broad. He has written several novels that have won him critical and popular acclaim while also garnering his fair share of enemies. This was an engrossing story of unlikely high school friends and the joys and sorrows they endured together through 20+ years of life. Near the end the central character is telling all of the children of his friends a bedtime story, as he concludes he says...

What's important is that a story changes every time you say it out loud. When you put it on paper, it can never change. But the more times you tell it, the more changes will occur. A story is a living thing; it moves and shifts. If I had each one of you tell me the story the same way I just told it, no one could do it.

As a preacher of the gospel, I get the opportunity to share the greatest story ever known, the unfolding drama of God's redemptive work through Jesus Christ! This is the story that gives all other stories meaning and purpose, yet it is true that no story that I tell to friends, family, or my students is ever the same. Even when I preach, I write out a manuscript, but I could preach the same sermon 12 times and tell it 12 different ways. The story of God is written in his word and on our hearts as children of God. The story he has on our hearts is ours to share and tell and point to the larger story that never changes even though how we share our story changes each time we share it.