The Importance of Telling Your Story

After twelve years teaching high school English in a small private school, I found myself burned out and praying for a change. When every door I tried to walk through was very definitely closed (sometimes slammed shut), I surrendered to the Lord and stayed until He was ready to move me.

Five years later one of the pastors from church told me they were looking for someone to edit PowerPoint slides used in Sunday services. Though I’d sung in the choir and been part of Worship Ministries for several years, I wondered why they asked me to take on this responsibility. I was busy with school and other volunteer opportunities. Yet it wasn’t long before I was going to the church two afternoons every week to fill this role.

To my surprise, after a challenging day in the classroom, I began to anticipate the interaction with my friends at church and described this as a breath of fresh air in my stressful routine.

Fast forward two years. I moved into an administrative role at school with added responsibilities. My busy schedule was suddenly unmanageable, and something had to change. I prayed, waiting for the Lord to tell me to stop leading Bible study or take a break from choir. I did not expect Him to say, “Give up working on the PowerPoint slides at church.”

Sadly, I wrestled with His answer for two weeks, trying to convince myself I didn’t hear Him correctly or that I could find some other way out of my dilemma.

One day I heard a well-known Bible teacher tell her personal experience of praying about a new ministry. For a number of years, she had been teaching a Sunday school class at her church; the group had grown and she thoroughly enjoyed leading them. Then one day the Lord’s voice spoke clearly that she was to resign her position as teacher of the class. She didn’t understand, but knew she must be obedient. And when she resigned, the doors of the new ministry flew open.

Her story resonated with me. Though I was not praying about a new ministry, I knew I had been disobedient when the Lord’s direction had been clear. To my surprise, after I gave up PowerPoint, the church offered me a newly-created full-time position as staff writer.

So often someone’s story of faith has encouraged me in my walk with Christ. Praying, trusting in God for provision, walking in obedience when it was tempting to take the easier path.

If it were not for crises in life, we would never know that God answers prayers. He met our greatest need by sending Jesus to die for our sins; and He continues to demonstrate His love and care for His children in the day-to-day events of this life.

There was a time when we regularly paused in church services to hear people’s testimonies. I listened to saints who stood and give thanks to the Lord for miracles, some great and some small. (Truly, aren’t all miracles great? That’s what makes them miraculous!) Some recalled past lives of sin when Jesus rescued them from the pit of despair and gave them new songs to sing.

There is something about a story – especially if it’s true. When one person tells how he or she made it through a difficult experience. In particular, one person tells another what his or her life was and what it is now, and the difference it makes to be following Christ.

Scripture is filled with storytelling. Imagine those who crossed the Red Sea on dry land when they feared being overtaken by the Egyptian enemies; or the widow of Zarephath who used the last of her flour and oil to make food for Elijah, then never to run out of flour and oil again; or Naaman who came up out of the water for the seventh time to see his leprous flesh made clean.

Those who encountered Jesus were quick to tell of their experiences: physical infirmities miraculously healed, even the dead brought back to life.

I think it would be interesting to hear the story of the Samaritan woman as she convinced her friends and neighbors to come and see this Man who knew all about her though they had never met and how her life would never be the same; or the woman with the issue of blood who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was instantly healed of an illness that left her suffering for 12 long years.

Think about the people in Jerusalem who heard the apostles speaking in various languages on the Day of Pentecost. Those who once hid in fear following Jesus’ death and resurrection were now boldly praising God. Or what would it have been like to be in Ephesus when people believed and began to confess their sins, so “many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all” (Acts 19:19).

What miraculous stories that cause the listeners to pause and consider and wonder and think about their own circumstances. Paul did not hesitate to share his own conversion experience when He met Christ on the Road to Damascus. Though it must have been difficult to recall how he once had lived – wrongfully persecuting the church. Yet he willingly shared his experience in hopes of persuading others to follow Christ.

I wonder how many saints in my local church have wonderful stories of faith to share, but we’ve never heard them. One thing about stories – they often require us to be vulnerable, to relate to someone our shortcomings or failures, our times of need. We may try to give the impression everything is fine and we’ve faithfully followed Christ for years; yet if people only knew our conversion stories, when if God had not been present in our crises, who knows what outcome we might have experienced.

Stories shared among believers in Christ is one way to help younger brothers or sisters to grow in their faith. The accounts of an older, wiser Christian may be what is needed to encourage one who is weaker or afraid to trust in God, to strengthen his or her worldview, seeking the Bible for more promises, more warnings, more instructions, more answers.

And, as is often the case, the one who shares the story is again encouraged, remembering what it was like to be in great need when God, the great Creator took time to reach out and minister as no one else could.

My position at the church eventually ended and what followed was an unexpected adventure that continues today…but that’s another story.

So let me ask you, what’s your story?

Response to Social Distancing

Over the past couple of weeks our nation – literally the entire world – has turned a corner to go in a direction I’ve not seen in my lifetime.

The concern of contracting COVID-19 (the Coronavirus) has caused major shifts in our everyday lives. Governments have issued orders to “shelter at home”; non-essential businesses have shut their doors until further notice; restaurants have stacked chairs in their dining rooms to discourage patrons from sitting down at tables and are now offering food for take-out only – even giving curbside and home-delivery services so people do not have to get out of their cars.

People are hoarding supplies for fear of goods not being available, as if mass production of goods we use every day will suddenly cease. Some have tried to take advantage of the situation by purchasing as much as they can in an effort to sell necessary items like water, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer at exorbitant prices – and they have found desperate buyers to pay whatever is necessary to purchase them.

School districts have made the decision to send children home while teachers prepare packets of lessons or assignments to be completed online, so education can continue without children and teachers being enclosed together in classrooms. I heard in one area bus drivers are making their regular routes – this time to deliver and pick-up homework assignments to children in those neighborhoods.

Even churches have changed their weekly meetings, opting to make the services available through Facebook and You Tube so church members continue to be encouraged and spiritually strengthened during these challenging times.

Growing up I heard stories my grandparents told of people coming together during times of war – neighbors helping neighbors, strangers reaching out to give assistance to those in need. And that’s what has been happening during this crisis. As older adults and those with compromised health situations seem to be especially susceptible to the virus, neighbors are shopping for groceries and running errands to help those in need, even giving out of their own supplies when grocery store shelves are bare.

The health care community is also in need. One hospital in our area is taking donations of new, unopened packages of cleaning supplies. Someone in my neighborhood sent out a request for old sheets and thin elastic, so she can sew masks for parents to use whose children are in a local children’s hospital. Others are making masks made out of a special material. Doctors and nurses can use these as outer masks to put over the official ones and help conserve their supplies.

Car manufacturers have offered to shift production to make ventilators and help with critical shortages in hospitals. Some breweries even changed their production processes to make hand sanitizer (another item that has been in short supply due to the virus).

And the list goes on.

Almost overnight this virus that has plagued our generation has drastically changed our routines and our special events.

Instead of hopping in the car to run to the store or driving to a concert or sporting event or out of town vacation, the idea of social distancing has caused us to re-think every aspect of our lives.

Gatherings of friends and family have been postponed. People have been forced to find creative ways to celebrate milestones – friends driving a parade of cars past someone’s home to say “Happy Birthday”; family members standing on the lawn singing and waving signs; a man in love serenading his long-time girlfriend through her window because she is confined to stay indoors.

And this list also goes on.

But one thing hasn’t changed – and it shouldn’t change, especially for believers in Jesus Christ.

There is no “social distancing” with God! Prayer is still available, whether we’re confined to our homes or to a hospital bed. And while we need a vaccination against this virus that has put our lives on hold and caused people to react in desperation, we should – we must – respond with renewed faith in God.

We are concerned, and we are cautious. Yet our commitment to the One who met our greatest need by dying for our sins, who is even now preparing for us a home with Him in heaven, should be stronger than ever.

As the world panics, let us be faithful and be renewed by the truth of God’s Word…

          “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

         

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast,

because they trust in You” (Isaiah 26:3).

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

Ask the Lord, “How have you called me to serve You in this generation ‘for such a time as this’?”

And “pray continually”…

For those who are sick and in need of healing from the effects of the virus…

For government leaders making decisions that affect our lives…

For healthcare workers laboring tirelessly to care for those suffering from illnesses…

         

For those we know who are lost and in need of Christ as their Savior…

For opportunities to join the Holy Spirit in His work to offer help and comfort to people in need.

Remember, we can offer “Praise…to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

COVID-19 will one day be a distant memory. This is the time to ask God to use us to help meet basic needs, offer comfort, and point family and friends, neighbors and co-workers who are lost in sin to the One, True God who never changes, who is never more than a prayer away, who remains sovereign and in control.

That is the difference we can make even now, a difference that will last for eternity.