Articles
Stories
Stories
Dean Murphy
I love stories. I like hearing stories. I like reading stories and I like telling stories (some might say repeating stories, to which I say, WHATEVER!). Stories are ways to understand history, to grasp concepts, to develop opinions, to discover cultures and to gain perspective on individuals. Stories are powerful. They convey things that frankly are sometimes difficult to convey in any other way.
I love that Jesus was a storyteller. He took everyday occurrences and leveraged them to help people understand the principles he wanted to communicate. Think about The Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10, or The Compassionate Employer in Matthew 20. These stories carry just as much meaning today as they did several hundred years ago. They are timeless stories.
Interestingly enough, the most powerful story Jesus ever told was the story of…Himself. From Genesis to Revelation, we can follow the story of a completely unique Savior. The idea that the God that created the Universe in the first several chapters of Genesis, planned for redeeming fallen man through the voluntary sacrifice of a perfect Son is indeed a story worth the telling.
The thing that is amazing about this story of Jesus, is that we are individually part of it. Not some insignificant part either. On one hand, our individual shortcomings are unfortunately the drivers for the story. On the other hand, our recognizing the value of the powerful story of Jesus and acting on it, brings joy to an entire Heaven! But our part in the story doesn’t end there. We have an unrestricted opportunity to further leverage ourselves in this story, by affecting others who are already a part of it but might not even realize it. Any day of any week, we can choose to tell the powerful story of Jesus and potentially change the outcome of the story for someone else.
What part are you choosing to play in the greatest story ever told? What part do those around you believe you to be playing? To what degree have you leveraged your influence by impacting others that are (knowingly or unknowingly) part of the story?
I don’t know about you, but often I am discouraged as I assess the limitations of my individual impact in this world. The grocery store doesn’t care that I am frustrated with the shelf life of the fruit they sell. The federal government is unaware and unconcerned that I have some ideas around taxes that might be improvements on the system in place today, and the airlines continue to make goofy rules without consulting me.
But one day, there might be a couple of story participants that show up on the role in Heaven having heard the most powerful story ever told…from you or me. Tell the story.
