"We dilute the beauty of the gospel story when we divorce it from our lives, our worlds, the words and images God is writing right now on our souls." Shauna Niequest
Someone asked me the following question: "If you were stuck in an elevator with someone and had two minutes to share your story, what would you say?" Well, I always love to hear a good story and have no problem sharing mine, so off I went on a tangent about my life. At the end, he said, "You like to tell stories, don't you? You seem like a good story teller." I guess I never saw myself that way, but yes, yes I do like to tell stories.
If you think about our lives, they are just a compilation of stories; short essays about everyone's lives. Us mama's get together at playdates and discuss the latest toddler frustrations. We go to work hanging out by the water cooler discussing what happened the night before or our recent law degree we earned while watching, Making a Murder. Are there really water coolers in offices anymore? Whether real or fiction, our lives are made up of stories. Why is it, then, when we are asked to share our story, our personal testimony of how we came to know Jesus, we divorce ourselves from the story?
We sit one-on-one in a coffee shop and chat away about our lives and the stories we live. But, when we are pressured to share our story with a group or someone we think won't accept our story, we divorce ourselves from the truth and start telling a fairy tale. Oftentimes we omit things from our story thinking it is just too bad for that person to hear. They may not accept me after I share that information. Or, we think our story is much too boring so we exaggerate our story and make it into something so intriguing it could be the next Bourne Identity script.
Don't divorce yourself from your story. Your words, your experiences, matter. One thing I learned is that I am not alone. I find that I am far less lonely when I share my story. I started this blog to share our Texas adventure with my California family and friends. Once things got real and serious and I had two miscarriages before getting pregnant with Grady, I used this blog as a diary of sorts. I needed to get what I was feeling and experiencing out of my system, so I began blogging about my journey through loss. The amount of love and support I received from sharing my story was immeasurable. Not to mention, the countless women who told me they had experienced the same thing. While I don't wish miscarriage on a single soul, it was nice to know I wasn't alone. I wouldn't have made it out of my pain and sadness the way I did if I had not shared my story.
We like to rank things. It's in our human nature to have order and structure. But, when we all get to Heaven, all our sins and the mess we made of our lives will be the same. God will ask each of us what we did with His Son not how bad we messed up. Don't be ashamed of your story. It matters. Someone needs to hear it. You never know, you may get a big hug from someone in Heaven one day and they may be there because you shared your story.
"In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind." Job 12:10
Your life is in His hands. Your story is His story. Share it.
Love & Blessings,
Meg
Someone asked me the following question: "If you were stuck in an elevator with someone and had two minutes to share your story, what would you say?" Well, I always love to hear a good story and have no problem sharing mine, so off I went on a tangent about my life. At the end, he said, "You like to tell stories, don't you? You seem like a good story teller." I guess I never saw myself that way, but yes, yes I do like to tell stories.
If you think about our lives, they are just a compilation of stories; short essays about everyone's lives. Us mama's get together at playdates and discuss the latest toddler frustrations. We go to work hanging out by the water cooler discussing what happened the night before or our recent law degree we earned while watching, Making a Murder. Are there really water coolers in offices anymore? Whether real or fiction, our lives are made up of stories. Why is it, then, when we are asked to share our story, our personal testimony of how we came to know Jesus, we divorce ourselves from the story?
We sit one-on-one in a coffee shop and chat away about our lives and the stories we live. But, when we are pressured to share our story with a group or someone we think won't accept our story, we divorce ourselves from the truth and start telling a fairy tale. Oftentimes we omit things from our story thinking it is just too bad for that person to hear. They may not accept me after I share that information. Or, we think our story is much too boring so we exaggerate our story and make it into something so intriguing it could be the next Bourne Identity script.
Don't divorce yourself from your story. Your words, your experiences, matter. One thing I learned is that I am not alone. I find that I am far less lonely when I share my story. I started this blog to share our Texas adventure with my California family and friends. Once things got real and serious and I had two miscarriages before getting pregnant with Grady, I used this blog as a diary of sorts. I needed to get what I was feeling and experiencing out of my system, so I began blogging about my journey through loss. The amount of love and support I received from sharing my story was immeasurable. Not to mention, the countless women who told me they had experienced the same thing. While I don't wish miscarriage on a single soul, it was nice to know I wasn't alone. I wouldn't have made it out of my pain and sadness the way I did if I had not shared my story.
We like to rank things. It's in our human nature to have order and structure. But, when we all get to Heaven, all our sins and the mess we made of our lives will be the same. God will ask each of us what we did with His Son not how bad we messed up. Don't be ashamed of your story. It matters. Someone needs to hear it. You never know, you may get a big hug from someone in Heaven one day and they may be there because you shared your story.
"In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind." Job 12:10
Your life is in His hands. Your story is His story. Share it.
Love & Blessings,
Meg
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