Do I Have a Story to Tell
I had a dream last week about a normal work day. I got up, went to work, went to practice, and came home. It seemed like a real day, and when I woke up it took a few minutes to convince myself it was a dream. In the dream my conversations kept gravitating towards me telling a story. For example, someone would say something and then I would say, "That reminds me of a story." I would then tell an elaborate story that would be riveting and pertinent to the people I talked to.
Growing up I was jealous of my big sister's ability to tell a story and dramatize things so that people would enjoy listening. I'm not a very good story teller. I can't ever remember any jokes, and when I try to tell one I usually give away the punch line on accident. I always admire good story-telling. It requires belief and ownership from the teller, and it transfers that belief to the listener. I'll never forget the time that my college teammate Suggy told us this dirty joke in the locker room. He had us believing it was a true story the whole time, and when it was over we were all rolling on the floor laughing. One guy didn't get it, and that made it even funnier. Even if I devoted my life to telling dirty jokes, there's no way I could top that one.
The dream made me want to become a better story teller. I have a lot of good stories in me somewhere. I played minor league baseball for crying out loud! Every once in a while something sparks a memory, but even then it's a struggle to recreate what was so memorable just a few years ago. The story I really want to devote my life to telling, though, is The Story. My Story. It's a story about being rescued from death by a superhero named Jesus. I would love to even retell His Story and the stories He told. He told stories to everyone. Someone would say, "It must be great to eat in heaven," and Jesus would tell a story about a man inviting people to his party. Or someone would say, "Jesus, you sure do hang out with a lot of bad people," and he would conjure up a story about a shepherd hunting his lost sheep or a woman who lost her silver coin or a wayward son coming home. Jesus had a story ready for everyone. These stories were so good that they were memorized by at least 4 people, written down, and are still being told 2000 years later. That's more memorable than the joke I heard in the locker room.
The gospel is in so many contemporary stories, too. I thought about Charles Dickens, whose story about a repentant sinner being shown grace is popular 200 years later and 5000 miles away from where he wrote it. So many books and movies retell the story of a hero rescuing someone from death. I'm reading Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy, and this one tells a story of a blind man who overcomes his demons and depression by telling his own story. He says, "Ultimamente todo es polvo. Todo lo que podemos tocar. Todo lo que podemos ver. En este tenemos la evidencia mas profunda de la justicia, de la misericordia. En este vemos la bendicion mas grande de Dios." (Ultimately everything is dust. Everything that we can touch. Everything that we can see. In this we have deeper evidence of justice, of mercy. In this we see the great blessing of God.) Even the Spiderman movies that keep getting more popular and tell a story of a hero offering hope to a fallen world can direct people to the story of Christ.
I think if I recognize The Story in the stories I read and watch, I'll be better prepared to tell it. It is my story, but I definitely need help telling it. I would love my daily conversations to gravitate toward the story of creation, fall and redemption.
