Story

I've been thinking a lot about stories over the past couple days.

A wise man, by the name of Brett Andrews, once taught me that stories are how people relate to each other. By telling you my story, I am opening the door for you to tell me your story. Through this shared storytelling, we get to know, respect, and trust one another. Eventually, this storytelling opens doors for evangelism: the sharing of God's story. (That was the bible college context anyway.)

I've been telling a lot of stories lately. Stories about my past. Stories that are, hopefully, helping me to make a point, or to make sense of the present. I think that storytelling is what defines us as human: being able to share our stories, our past experiences, our take on life. Without that ability, what would we be?

I have come to realize that stories are unique to the person telling them. That even though you and I shared the same experience, your story of that event and my story of that event are going to be different. That doesn't mean that one of us is wrong, or that one of us is lying, we just have different perspectives, different views of the same experience.

And maybe that's the beauty of storytelling. My story on its own is biased, and probably a little self-serving. Your story on its own is too. Each one of us only holds our own perspective, an incomplete story. But when we share our stories with one another, especially stories of like experiences, our stories are completed with perspectives from various views. And interwoven between those two stories, those stories which at first glance seem so starkly different, interwoven between those stories, is the truth.

Will you share your story with me? Can we discover the truth together?