How I Love to Tell the Story!
The Greensboro fellows spent this past weekend in Ocean Isle for our renowned Life Map retreat. Over the course of the weekend, each of us was allotted half an hour to present the story of our life. While I could never pretend to understand the genius of Madison Miller and JD Meeder, I gather that this prompt is intentionally open-ended. To help direct our preparation, we were given a few questions and suggestions. The goal was not to merely create a timeline of important life events but to recognize themes, eras, important characters, and pivotal moments. Pulling all of these things together, we then were encouraged to reflect on where we can see God at work within our stories and what we've learned about Him through it all.
Preparing to present was agonizing. I had to really face it: if my life were to be plotted on a line chart, with the y axis measuring just about anything enviable, the trend would go down, down, down. Fortunately, I had not been asked to make a line chart. By writing my story in terms of where God has chased me, convicted me, and found me, something wonderful happened. The lower I went, the more I had cause for praise. I could see-- yes! This is what God taught me here. This is where I grew in wisdom. This is where the Spirit was filling me with humility and knowledge of Him. This is where I turned, in radical ways, away from sin. I could see God’s faithfulness in the Mariana trenches of my line chart. I would have thought that my life back then would be utterly inhospitable to grace, yet there it was, little threads everywhere.
It was even more wonderful to hear the stories of my friends because each one, like mine, is an unfinished story of God's victory. If you’ve ever heard someone give an unsolicited but glowing account of a person that you love, you’ll know what I felt—the confirmation that, yes! This person that I’ve chosen is SO good. These were testimonies that insisted on God’s kindness, His patience, His mercy, and His power. The exercise of sharing our stories with one another keeps us sensitive to the beauty of the “immeasurable riches of his grace.” The same glittering threads of grace I had seen and marveled at in my story were woven liberally through the stories of my friends. Together we added up to just a section of a tapestry depicting God’s glory; each of us getting to add our own unique questions and graces.
And this leads me to the greater story. My own story (man, do I get lost it in sometimes!) is just one piece of a story that is so much greater. It is a speck in the grand, cosmic history of God and all that he has done. God’s story is a mystery to us-- His ways are inscrutable and unsearchable. (Romans 11:33) But our God loves us so deeply. Like a father hinting at a coming gift that is so far beyond the child’s comprehension, our God invites us into his perfect plan. We often have no idea what we’re looking at, but I just delight in the pieces that I can comprehend. From creation to consummation, before and forever beyond, Jesus, there is nothing so lovely.
My favorite poet is a seventeenth century Anglican priest by the name of George Herbert. He has a poem called The Holy Scriptures II that begins with the lines,
Oh, that I knew how all thy lights combine,
And the configurations of their glory!
Seeing not only how each verse doth shine,
But all the constellations of thy story.
God, I thank you for this precious taste of heavenly perspective. Like Herbert, I want to see beyond the details, Lord. I want to be free from my own false stories before you, so that the reaction of my heart is to ground myself in your better and truer story. Before the day when I will fully know and love you, let me know and love you more. Amen and amen!
Love,
Mary