Power of the Story

I enjoy spending some time reflecting on the issues of life. It’s good for me. It keeps me sane when I want to go berserk. So anyway, today I was given that opportunity to do some reflecting and it occurred to me that the story has a lot to do with whatever success I have in life. I do like a good story. I enjoy a good story whether it’s true or not. Indeed some of the best stories are true and are good for helping me along in life and even some of the ones that don’t relate to reality.

When I think about the steps in life that I’m taking at the moment, it is amazing how they fit well with concepts of the story. It is fascinating how they work well in fitting in with so many things. So for example the story of the Beatles and their rise and fall up until that whole 1969/1970 fiasco is just so intriguing. Why did they fall apart the way they did? Why didn’t someone do something earlier to ensure the parting of the ways would be amicable? But in all those questions, what a story!

Then there’s the story of Manchester United. Now I’m not a United fan as you know only too well, and you’re also aware that as a Liverpool supporter, they are meant to be the enemy. Still, I like a good read and I like football so it’s only fair that I read up on some good stories. The story of Manchester United as written by Jim White is a really gripping insight into how the club that started off as a form of recreational relief for workers went onto become the multi-million pound going concern of the early 21^st Century. The ups and downs, ins and outs, figures and personalities, principles and power-plays are not just about football or a city, but relate to elements of life to which we can all relate in some sense. Not only is it about where we were, it informs where we are and where we could go. All imaginatively and creatively outlined for us in the power of a story.

Lets face it a lot of people get concepts better through a story than they would through it being logically outlined and explained in a matter-of-fact way. Even lectures can rise above slumber-ville when inhabited with the characterisation of someone in a story form.

My own love for the word of God was not through the passionate preaching of our church pastor, or through the insistent children’s classes we had to endure back in the day. It all came about reading those interesting stories and even seeing them in comic form about this relationship between God and man, through the story of God and Israel. Then the widening of the relational picture through the mission of Christ and subsequent spreading of the gospel and the stories we read of the bigger pictures in the letters of the New Testament.

Now as I walk through life these stories inform aspects of it and help me to at least appreciate it in the light of a larger story. After all that is all that history records – what role we play in the story and we know that if we don’t learn from the lessons of history in some sad cases we can be in danger of repeating it. Who wants to live a bad ending?

So that’s the story of the story for the day and as you can see I’m glad to be back and blogging on a regular basis. As you also know I’m intrigued to keep on going with the blogging as an exercise in writing and bringing it together in whatever way I can. In the light of these passions and interests expect some more changes in the upcoming future ... but that’s another story!

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd