The power of stories

"Now that we are on our way, Satan will do everything he can to steal the Romance. One way he does this is to leave us only propositions, or worse, "principles". The heart cannot live on facts and principles alone; it speaks the language of story and we must rehearse the truths of our faith in a way that captures the heart and not just the mind."

"We cannot escape the fact that the Scriptures are given to us in the shape of a story."

"Our acts of remembering (the good God has done) must involve both essential truths and dramatic narrative. I believe we need to hold the creeds in one hand and our favourite forms of art in the other. There are films, books, poems, songs, and paintings I return to again ad again for some deep reason in my heart. Taking a closer look, I see that they all tell me about some part of the Sacred Romance. They help wake me to a deeper remembrance. "

"We were to remember together, in community. We need to tell our stories to others and to hear their stories told. We need to help each other with the interpretation of The large story and our own. Our regular times of coming together to worship are intended to be times of corporate remembrance. How different Sunday mornings would be if they were marked by a rich retelling of the Sacred Romance in the context of real lives. This is a far cry from the fact-telling, principle-listing, list keeping that characterizes much of modern worship."

Lately I've awakened to see the power stories have in our lives. It's actually quite incredible which impact movies like Lord of the rings have on our generation. Stories and narratives are one of the most foundational elements of any culture and the element as they maintain the corporate knowledge. A story we can identify with is so much more powerful than any theory on given subject. In a way, you can see a captivating story as your teacher. The stories of unconditional love, redemptive analogies, biographies of the saints of the old...they are all written for us to understand that God has a hope and future for us as well. We are to live supernatural life because we are LIVING OUT HIS STORY. Just try looking at your life as an unique, captivating love story between you and your Creator and Redeemer, who designed this place for you to live in it, and wrote your adventure in his book well before you were born! But what makes it even more intrigueing is that you never walk this way alone, but continually your path is crossed by others whom God has written into your story.       

My longing is not only to hear testimonies of what God has done, healings and blessings, but also to hear the everyday stories of beauty of life, meaningfulness of casual encounters, warmth of friendship and so on that are available stories to those whom God has taught to see and to listen with a heart of His child. I guess that's also one of the reasons I blog.

Comments

[laura]

hei kuulostaa kirjalta jonka haluan lukea, tuo sacred romance.
ei mulla mitään sen kummempaa kommentoitavaa ole, halusinpa vaan sano hei niina pidän susta. ja jännää ja kivaa että meidän matkat on kirjoitettu kohtaamaan. seikkailuahan tämä elämä taitaakin olla. ehkä se sumu siitä hälvenee, jee.

[lisa]

I've been thinking about the header of your blog. particularly the word 'radical'. I'm wondering if we really understand what it means to be radical. I'm using the word to instigate dialougue with God. The word 'radical' becomes a plumbline in prayer & it's there that I realize that though I myself use the word to dscribe me - in truth, I am not. few are. I mean, not really.

[Mathias]

Oh, there it is... now I see the reason for why this is one of my favourite blogs to read

:D

[andiwolf]

super. wonderfully put. YES! u are sooo true about the power of these our and HIS stories. let's explore times of "corporate remembrance" together then :)