The Power of Story

I picked up a book the other day-Stories of Emergence, Moving from Absolute to Authentic. It is a collection of articles written by various authors regarding the Emerging Church. The first article is written by Mike Yaconelli. Mike was the founder of Youth Specialities and also a pastor in Yreka, California. He was killed in an automobile accident a couple years ago. I think we could have been friends.

I have been thinking alot about what he has written regarding the Power of Story. He states that "stories descibe our interaction with God, the tale of God's presence or lack of it in our lives. Stories are the playground of out faith, the place where the logic of our beliefs gets tested by the illogical experiences of our lives, the workplace where our ideas about God run head on into the real God. Our stories are the testing ground where our peceived ideas about how God works come face to face with how God really works. Our stories are the daily journal of faith's complicatedness, the progress report of our journey with God, the roadmap of our attempts to follow Jesus in the twisted and complex jungle of reality. Our stories are our testimonies to how the historical God works in the present. Stories are the witness of our sightings of God, our periodic glimpses of him, and our daily frustration of trying to keep him in our sights, losing him in the busyness of our lives and thenfinding him again-or trying to find him."

In John we read about the Word becoming Flesh and dwelling among us manifested in Jesus Christ. Today, I think we put fleshness to the Gospel-otherwise it is just stories. As we share our stories of struggle, defeat, and victories, we are sharing reasons to believe. Putting flesh to Faith. I grew up in a church where during each service there was a time to share a testimony. Some people would always share the same thing. Some people sat silently. Others would tell how God was moving in their lives giving reason to go on-they were the Word becoming flesh. A glimpse at God moving among us. Stories are powerful tools. I love to listen to a good story. I also love to tell a good story. When they strengthen my faith or the faith of others, that makes it even better.

Stories always remind us that the work of God is always ongoing and always changing and always revealing something new." -Mike Yaconelli

Current weather: Sunny and beautiful. Today's high was about 92 degrees. We saw the movie "Barnyard" today. It was a great story.

-Norm