Stupid stories:
>> Like the time when I thought it would be cool to ride down a hill on my bike with my eyes closed.
>> Like the time when I biked into a brick wall and broke my wrist
(My history with bikes is really bad).
Awesome stories:
>> Like the time when I delivered my first sermon in church (Is. 1:12-25)
>> Like the time when I played on-stage with Jars of Clay and Third Day (so sick!)
Stories, after all, are the nature of the media industry. It's one of the things that I love the most about working in radio--it gives the opportunity to tell a story (in varying forms) every time you turn the microphone on and engage the listener.
Story telling is, really, something we find throughout the Bible--particularly in the ministry of Christ. How often do we see Jesus walking around telling people stories in order to describe the Kingdom of God to them? Hint: the answer is "very often."
One of our favorite words in our Christianese- fluent church culture is "testimony." Usually, this conjures up images of teenagers shuffling up to strangers on street corners and trying to spit out a three-minute story about how they came to know Jesus. Oh! And then we have to make sure we quote 1 Peter 3:15 about "giving a reason for the hope in us"--and we figure the only way to do that is the awkward shuffle.
Thankfully, most of us realize that testimony does not have to be like that. Testimony is a lot less of saying the proper words. It's story-telling.
Story-telling is a part of every human culture. Every people group, from the Native Americans to the Chinese, and from the Brazilians to the Filipinos have creation stories, along with tribal and national myths that are handed down. Telling stories is part of who we are as humans. We insist on bedtime stories as children, and amuse our friends at college by telling stories of "that one time we *insert something stupid and awesome here*." It's a natural way to communicate.
Tonight, I heard from several of my close friends as they told their stories. It wasn't always pretty. Their stories showed the hurt of living in a sin-torn world. Ah, how creation groans, waiting for the consummation, as Paul writes. But it moved me to hear their stories--and I was so glad to be able to share my own.
(Ask me about my story sometime. It's really too long to put here).
That's testimony. It wasn't just about Jesus and how everything is pretty and perfect now that we have him. Of course, Jesus is the underlying narrative behind everything we share, but that does not mean our story is only about that. Our story involves our background, our blessings, our darkest moments, and our plans for the future. It's beautiful and broken and real and messy.
But thanks be to God--our stories aren't over yet. They never will be, really.
"Til He returns or calls us home, Here in the power of Christ we stand."
