Through our little stories

"You tell what you know, what you've earned, what you've learned the hard way. You watch it fall on what seem to be deaf ears, and you mutter something under your breath, something about pearls before swine. But then ten years later you realize your story has now been women into someone else's, a very necessary thing, a bridge to a new way of understand and living..."

[Share Your Story]

"The big story really is actually being told through our little stories, and by sharing our lives, not just our sermons, we're telling God's story in as reverent and divine ways as it has ever been told. God's story was told in Hebrew and Greek, and I believe that it's also being told in whispers and paintings and blogs and around dinner tables all over the world..."

"My life is not a story about me. And your life's not a story about you. My life is a story about who God is and what he does in a human heart. My story is about the people on my street, the things I read, the way we raise our child, the things I've done and the things that have been done to me. A story is never about one person. It has a full cast of characters, connected by blood or love or jealousy..." Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet

My friend Fitzie always says the best way to get people talking is to say, "Tell me about..." When you ask people to share their story, in a way that requires more than one or two words as a response, you begin to see the real them. When I talk to Rach about her friends at Depauw, or to Emily about kids, or to Ellyn about camp they light up. They're excited about sharing their story. One of my favorite things right now is reading blogs because I'm reading people's stories- Alli finding joy, Annie with her friends, Zach meeting a person a day, Sophie loving people in Africa, Lauren being a mom. I want to keep telling my story, whether that's in a blog post, over a cup of coffee, through the phone, or in my living room, of junior high chaos, Young Life adventures, camp relationships, the books I'm reading, and finding my place in all of this.

I believe your should share your story.