Three Powerful Reasons You Should Tell Your Story

Rosaria Butterfield writes about our tendency to interrogate Scripture and its truth with a “doubt first and ask questions later” mindset when we see God behaving in ways we don’t understand. A more helpful (and orthodox) mindset brings all we know about God’s goodness and faithfulness to the biblical narrative and then invites the Scripture to interrogate our motives and our thoughts.  All of this can happen even in the midst of a laundry-basket life because God delights in infusing the mundane with meaning.  

I’m convinced that God cares deeply about the way I use my minutes because they add up to the sum total of my story. For the past several years, I’ve been sharing little stories here, all of them part of life here on this country hill. In an odd way, though, the obedience of writing about the books I’m reading and the grace I’m receiving, writing about growing up boys and grandmothering chaos has changed me almost as much as the process of living it all.

Which leads me to ask: What about you? How are you sharing YOUR story?

Maybe you’ve convinced yourself that you’ve got nothing to say, nothing to add to the conversation. I would disagree, because I would have said the same thing myself until I started sharing my story and hearing from others that my words make a difference.

I read Annie Dillard’s words for the first time when my children were very small, in the days when I was in the midst of changing diapers, cleaning up lots of messes, reading stacks of storybooks to my boys, and looking for ways to fill their days with wonder:

The way we live our days will be, after all, the way we live our life.”  

The way I live my days will be, when all is said and done, the sum total of my story, and there are (at least) three good reasons for you to share your story:

1. Your Story Puts the Gospel in Context

Flannery O’Connor describes the South of her childhood as being “Christ-haunted,” and I completely identify with that.  Alcoholism and mental illness pretty much defined the home I grew up in, but there was an undercurrent of something spiritual – outside influences, my own curiosity and my hunger for something stable and true — that kept me on track, even though I did not come to faith until I was in Junior High.  I truly had no idea what I was getting myself into, and if it were not for two important influences, I’m not sure that I would have persevered in the faith:

• Godly women mentored me in the Word of God. Because I saw that God answered their prayers, I began to believe that He would hear me as well.  They modeled for me a life of self-giving surrender to God.
• I attended Child Evangelism Fellowship’s youth training program for several summers (Christian Youth in Action).  I learned how to study the Bible and prepare a lesson for children. In the process, I discovered that I could open my mouth and share Truth in a way that made sense to others.  Shy and self-conscious, I finally dared to believe that God could use my offering, small and faltering though it was.   

2. Your Story Demonstrates God’s Generosity

Continually, I am encouraged by the truth that God has given me gifts that I would never have had the sense to ask Him for.  Chief among these gifts is my family, and I will always remember the Sunday morning after our fourth son was born.  

We were all in the mini-van, and we were on our way to church, and my unreasonably patient husband looked over at me, smiling, and said, “Everybody’s here.”  He always had that Certainty (and I capitalize it in the tradition of A.A. Milne, because it’s a thing all of its own) that God was going to give us four children, and that we would raise them to follow Him.  Obviously, the paint will always be wet on this project, but this is the group of people who teach me the biggest lessons and without whom I would have nothing to write about.

For most of my kids’ growing up. years, there was barely time to keep a journal and to write milestones in baby books. Today, it feels very luxurious to be sharing words with a wider audience than the 6-year-olds who were reading the rhymed clues for the scavenger hunts at my kids’ birthday parties.  

However, as an encouragement (and an exhortation) to young mums in the trenches today: At some point, I realized that I had all four boys in my home together for only ten years.  College and marriage blew open the door, and in no time at all, we were empty nesters.

If I had known how quickly it would pass, I would probably have laughed more and thrown myself into the daily chaos with a little more abandon.   I would have stopped my ceaseless striving with the do-list and looked into their faces when they spoke to me.  I’m thankful for grace—God’s generosity— as He reveals my failings and shows me how to persevere in faith in this following life.

3. Your Story Proves God’s Faithfulness and His Relentless Commitment to Your Good

I started blogging when I was invited to write for our church’s website.  It was often a midweek expansion of the lesson I’d taught in Sunday school, so it began as just one more way of communicating Truth to the wonderful women who attend my church.  Somehow I stumbled into reviewing books, and a number of people said, “Hey, that was good.  You should do more of that.”   

My writing allows me to test the ideas I’m reading about and wrestling with by sharing them with others. Since God has communicated to us through a Book, my understanding of His ways will be in direct proportion to my Biblical literacy.

But let’s not be satisfied with mere literacy! Let’s strive for Biblical fluency!  By sharing the books that I am reading and the lessons from God’s Word that I am learning, I hope to become more fluent myself and to encourage others in their journey of faith.

I have a feeling that even if I were not a Christian, I would be writing and teaching about something.  I love words, and it is so satisfying to polish a sentence, to find just the right adjective or noun to communicate the thought that’s in my brain.  Thanks be to God that He has given me the privilege of living in concert with Him, and, therefore, of sharing His truth.

J.I. Packer offers this advice for writers:   “Go deep in personal worship; write to hit hearts; write from a sense of calling.”  This month I will be 61, and the longer I live, the more I realize that I have no wisdom of my own to share, and the only thing of lasting value that I have to offer to others is my faltering grasp of the eternal wisdom in the Word of God. 

My story demonstrates that God is faithful. He is relentlessly committed to my good.

Now… it’s YOUR turn. What little stories in your life put the gospel in context, demonstrate God’s generosity, or prove God’s faithfulness? I’d love to read about it in the comments!

The way you live your days will be, when all is said and done, the sum total of your story. Your story puts the gospel in context, demonstrates God’s generosity, and proves His faithfulness.

Tweet

But First Let’s Talk Books…

Fortunately, all this subconscious genre analysis didn’t get in the way of my complete enjoyment of the book’s narrative arc, a distinctly black account of one man’s experience of finding Joy. If you had a difficult childhood, you will identify with McCaulley’s struggle to fit education and vocation into the world he knew. If you didn’t grow up with a difficult childhood, the book will open your eyes and mind to the reality that family dysfunction, drug addiction, and hopelessness are simply the water many kids are born into—and swimming lessons are hard to come by.

Holding You in the Light,

P.S. Last year in time for the church’s celebration of Pentecost, I shared my review of McCaulley’s children’s book Josie Johnson’s Hair and the Holy Spirit. Like many children, Josey Johnson looks in the mirror and understands her differences as bad or less than. A heart-to-heart talk with her dad helps her to see that while God could have made us all the same, he chose to exercise creativity. He must LOVE differences!

#HowFartothePromisedLand by @esaumccaulley, will open your mind to the reality that family dysfunction, drug addiction, and hopelessness are the water many kids are born into–and swimming lessons are hard to come by @ConvergentBooks

Tweet

My Birthday Gift to Newsletter Subscribers!

I’ll be celebrating my birthday TOMORROW on newsletter release day, and to celebrate, I’ve created a free resource to take you deep into Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19. How, exactly, do we become “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner person?” A Prayer for Spiritual Strength is my verse-by-verse meditation on the prayer along with a series of probing questions. It’s available as a free printable in the September 2023 newsletter.

If you’re already a subscriber, watch your inbox on September 21. If not, it’s easy to subscribe!

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees. If you should decide to purchase any of the books or products I’ve shared, simply click on the image, and you’ll be taken directly to the seller. If you decide to buy, I’ll receive a few pennies at no extra cost to you.

Many thanks to Convergent Books and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.