Friday, March 25, 2016

The Power of Story

“Fine,” that’s the typical answer to the question, “how are you?” It conveys that there is nothing going on at the moment that requires a call to 911. “Fine,” tells the inquirer just slightly more than nothing. Perhaps we could replace the question, “how are you,” with, “do you need me to call 911?” “No.” “Fine.”

The world would spin around as normally as ever with my suggestion for a new question. It is in jest anyway. But it brings me to my point, and that is, stories have great potential to move people. I have stories, we all have stories, that can convey who we are far better than a CV or a rap-sheet. And because stories have an ability beyond the “facts” they possess great power.

You can tell people how many Syrian refugees have been created in the past five years, or you can tell them the story of just one boy. Stories can move people to do incredible things. And that is just how it should be. Facts and figures, numbers and statistics do not have human faces.

The Bible is sometimes called that Greatest Story Ever Told. It is, I agree. But not because it’s use of language is better than any other story. It is because it is the story of humanities relationship with the Creator. It is a story that is filled with all the human drama you can possibly imagine, all that is good about us and all that is so very bad. It is a story that tells us of God’s awesome, never failing love for us. All powerful elements in any good story. The story in the Bible is great because it moves people to do great things.


The next time someone asks you, “how are you,” or, “do you need me to call 911,” just say, “no, but have you heard about the resurrection?”

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