There is a story happening right now and you are in it. There’s another story happening right now and I’m in it. At times stories intersect (like yours and mine at this moment), and at times they diverge - sometimes never to converge again. Well, two weeks out of Africa I’m convinced more than ever about one thing: stories matter. They really matter.
Whenever you want to discover what does really matter in life, hang out with kids for a while. Last weekend, while hanging with my three and four year old grandkids, they begged me to tell a story about when I was a little girl. Then, about their dad...and then, my son and daughter-in-law suggested I tell them stories about my grandpa and grandma. (Why didn’t I think of that?)
So I did all of the above and the kids were enthralled, even though I’m really not a very good verbal story teller. When one story wrapped up they were begging for another. (Thankfully we got distracted before we resorted to the “bat in my house” stories, which they wanted to hear over and over again a few months ago. At that time they voted for their favorite out of the following: the swooping bat story, the dead bat story, or the bat hanging on the living room shade story. Sadly, I have all of those... And, for what it’s worth, the dead bat and the swooping bat stories tied for first place with one vote a piece.)
Later, my thoughts scrolled back to my last full day in Chad... Our hosts at the Chad mission welcome center invited a missionary couple working with the OneStory Partnership to have lunch with us.
Our conversation that noon focused on the power of storytelling and the importance of orality around the world. As we chatted, I thought back to how considering my life as a story - more than a year ago - had caused me to pray and think, so that my mind and heart were prepared and ready when the call came to write about my grandparents' stories. This call then led me to plan a trip to Africa and start a blog. Which all led me to be in Chad on a recent February Sunday where we just happened to be talking about - the power of a story!
The missionaries discussed the power of translating true stories from the Bible into languages that don’t have the Bible yet. These stories get told and retold over and over again, and the truth of God’s word gets introduced and spreads.
People are hungry to hear good stories. Good stories have conflict, and they have triumph. They are important, and will be retold. We are each in a story that matters and we have responsibility regarding the plot. I no longer take that lightly, and I’m contemplating the next chapter…
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