The Power of Story
January 25, 2008
Not long ago I spilled coffee in my wife’s new car while she was out of town. Quick to find a solution to my carelessness, I went to the local home store to purchase carpet cleaning supplies. After finding the needed supplies, I rushed up to the check out counter. As I looked up, the clerk smiled, as if to say, “What’s going on here?” I replied to her non-verbal question by saying, “Everybody has a story, do you want to hear mine?” She did and we both got a laugh about my predicament.
The fact is everybody has at least three stories. The first relates to our past. The second relates to our current situation. The third relates to our future. In the book, Hope in Pastoral Care and Counseling, Andrew Lester points out the importance of a person’s future story. We tend to live “toward” our future story whether that story is negative or positive, hopeful or despairing.
For example, a pastor of an inner city church tells about a young lady who was graduating from high school. Even though she was accepted as a college student, she was unable to attend. She simply could not imagine herself away from her home surroundings and as a college student.
The gospel message is a message of hope. Jesus heard people’s stories and helped them create new stories toward which they could live. In recent days we, in the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship, have been discerning God’s vision for our future. We have been constructing a future story.
Through Mountain Hope, the combined effort of many people seek to help individuals and communities construct a hopeful and positive future story. While we are interested in their past and their current situation, we are more interested in helping engender a hopeful future story. We do this by seeking to be positive reflections of Christ, bringing a spirit of hope, grace, and opportunity.
In this “Coordinator Chat” area of the website, I hope to share stories. Some will be stories of our past. Others will be stories of our present and future and how, together, we are helping construct positive future stories.
February 7th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Good first entry, John. And a good idea to make this area of the website a place for you to share stories. I look forward to reading them.