What's Your Story - August 13

Stories are powerful. Over the years, I’ve noticed in my reading how I’ve shifted from reading fictional stories more into the real-life stories of people’s lives. When I think back to the books I’ve invested the most time in reading the past few years, they have been memoirs. Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming tells her story of growing up in Chicago and how her life unfolded since then as an attorney, community leader, and First Lady. Kate Bowler’s memoir Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved shares her story of cancer diagnosis and treatment as a 35-year-old mother, wife, and university professor. Shaking the Gates of Hell by John Archibald tells his story of growing up the son and grandson of Methodist ministers here in Alabama (excited he’ll be sharing some of these stories with us when he visits Saint Stephen’s on September 12).

This past Christmas, I received the first volume of President Barack Obama’s memoir, A Promised Land. It’s 700 pages, so between work and family responsibilities, I only just finished reading it a few weeks ago! As someone who studied presidential and organizational communication as part of my graduate program, I enjoyed getting a detailed, inside look at his campaign and then his first term in office, especially all the stories of how he worked with his team to develop strategies for leading and communicating with the people of our nation and the world.

When I was in Chicago last week for vacation with my daughters, our main destinations were educational in nature (even on vacation I always like us to keep learning!). A week ago today we spent part of the afternoon at the Field Museum of Natural History, and the exhibit I enjoyed the most was called Becoming Jane: The Evolution of Jane Goodall. Organized by the National Geographic Museum and currently touring amongst museums around the country, the focus of the exhibit is giving visitors an inside look at the life story of the famous primatologist and wildlife conservationist.

The exhibit begins by sharing photographs and accounts of her childhood and adolescence in a small English village. We see her favorite stuffed animal (a monkey). We learn stories about how even as an 18-month-old she was drawn to sitting in the mud observing earthworms, and about the birch tree she loved to climb up so much that her grandmother gave it to her as a birthday gift one year when they couldn’t afford to give her another gift. I was especially moved by the story of as a small child, Jane disappeared one afternoon. No one could find her, but eventually as it was getting dark she came walking back home from across the field. Where had she been? “Well, I’ve been in a henhouse, waiting ti watch a hen lay an egg. Nobody would tell me how a chicken laid its eggs, so I just sat down and waited. And now I know.” These childhood stories are great foreshadowing of exactly how she came to learn so much about chimpanzees in the field in Tanzania. We understand Jane Goodall so much better as a scientist and conservationist by learning these stories of her childhood, her young adulthood as a research assistant and graduate student, her life in the field as a young scientist and later how she balanced that as a spouse and mother. All that she accomplished and contributed to conservation, and our own understanding of the world, are now even more meaningful to me having learned these stories of how she came to be the person she is today.

In yesterday’s Acts reading, we encountered Paul as he was being seized and dragged from the Temple, and then was arrested and taken to the barracks by the soldiers as the crowd kept shouting “Away with him!” In today’s passage from Acts 21 and 22, Paul has the opportunity to share his story with the crowd.

Just as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, ‘May I say something to you?’ … ‘I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city; I beg you, let me speak to the people.’ When he had given him permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the people for silence; and when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying:

‘Brothers and fathers, listen to the defence that I now make before you.’ When they heard him addressing them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet. Then he said: ‘I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way up to the point of death by binding both men and women and putting them in prison, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me.

Having shared the way of life he was raised in, which gave him common ground with his audience, Paul goes on to tell of his conversion experience on the road to Damascus. It’s a powerful story, one which not only changed Paul’s life and purpose forever, but one which gave him a message of hope to share as he traveled around the Mediterranean region, encouraging believers and winning new converts in the churches that were beginning to form in Philippi and Ephesus, Galatia and Corinth, Rome and Thessaloniki.

In more evangelical strands of Christianity, one tends to hear more emphasis on the power of knowing and being able to share with others your “testimony,” which is a the story or stories of how one has seen God at work in their life—especially stories of salvation and conversion. We in the Episcopal tradition can learn something valuable from their practice of being able to articulate and share our own “testimonies” with others—just as we hear from Paul in this passage from Acts. Each of our stories are compelling and powerful. What is your story? Where do you see God at work in it?

—Becky+

Questions for Self-Reflection

What is your story? When you look back at stories of how you became the person you are today, how you see God at work in your life? How does storytelling help us to form bonds of friendship and community with others?

Daily Challenge

Make some time to write down an important story from your life, whether in a journal or in a letter to a family member or friend you want to know and remember this story. Or make a point to share a story from your life with someone in a conversation this weekend. How can sharing a story from your life change the tone and direction of your conversation?