Sitting here behind this page I realize how very long it has been since I’ve written. But sadly I also sit and recall all the stories I should have told when they were fresh to my soul, instead of buried behind days of frivolous details that have fogged the glass just enough to have lost their simple clarity. How many stories do we leave untold? I often wonder what comes of story telling, but I have seen and don’t need to question long the answer to this. I mean it is, after all, stories that make our lives. Often stories told in truth and transparency do miraculous things for the lives of others. They give us insight and understanding, compassion and relevance, perspective and coherence, community and comfort, inspiration and connection. They give us reality like none other. Why do you think testimonies are so valuable? They offer a similar taste of a reality we are all trying to grasp onto; not the reality of this world but the reality of the divine that we catch sight of in brief but intoxicating encounters. We are all captivated by stories, no matter our age, gender, disabilities, fears, doubts, insecurities, religion or occupations. Think about it...stories level us out to the same field. Movies are stories; some true, some not, but stories none the less. Books, songs, poems, psalms, the news, scripture, pictures, magazines, and even science; all stories told from one man to another! I acknowledge not all stories are good or true, but all stories intrinsically command an audience and capture our attention. They play on our thoughts, emotions and experiences. They offer us escape, adventure and creativity. A good story will stop people from what they are doing and draw them into contemplative and euphoric states; ones where they have forgotten their troubles and surrendered their responsibilities to briefly partake in the telling of another’s experience with the human condition. Watching, hearing or reading a story from a distance is influential of itself but the straightforward act of asking someone their story will often produce a bond between mankind unlike another. I live for stories, I have discovered the simple but powerful connection that sharing your story and offering an environment for others to share theirs creates. People want to tell their story, they are dying to be heard and known. This is one of the most beautiful gifts we can offer each other. Let me explain...it makes people feel loved, trusted, significant, human if you will... I do not always hand a homeless person five dollars but instead stop what I am doing to sit and exchange stories with them. Whether true stories or not, these stories need to be heard and should be told. It is no matter of the accuracy as much the simple act of saying I will listen...I am not here to fix or mend, judge or correct, analyze or argue; but instead to offer you a basic human need..an ear to be attentive to your story. Our stories can and frequently will be skewed, but not to fret, this does not alter the transaction...because ultimately when we listen to a story we will only glean that which survives our analytical and bruised perspective. I can learn from a lie and I can learn from truth, because ultimately it all will fall on the table of my understanding and view of things before it reaches my heart. This I would argue is why stories are told, because we all do not have eyes that see the same, ears that hear the same or hearts that receive the same.
I stumbled upon this story about stories in my message bible and love its simplicity. Matthew writes that the disciples approached Jesus and asked “Why do you tell stories?” He answers, “You’ve been given insight into God’s Kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories; to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight...”
My gathering from this is that the transaction of story telling alone does something profound in the hearts of others; whether or not we agree is irrelevant, whether or not we have an epiphany instantly is irrelevant, whether or not we understand completely is irrelevant...story telling in itself is creating a posture for insight and readiness. I know I have told stories and the eyes across from me have said, yeah right. But I also know those same eyes have flickered with a what if... It isn’t my job to dissect the story and explain with certainty and precision what each piece unequivocally means. I tell the story setting it free to offer whatever it will to the audience. I don’t have control and so I do not try to control it. I do not have perfect understanding so I do not try to make them understand it perfectly. I do not know what they are gleaning and so I do not try to tell them what to glean...no it is a loving and free exchange of a story I found along my journey; there is beauty and purity and lessons and morals and hidden meanings and powerful messages waiting to be unfurled before the eyes, ears and hearts of the listeners. But I cannot wait to tell my stories for certainty that this is true or in order to teach what I find important; no instead I must speak and find the freedom that awaits my soul in the willingness to offer my raw, unfinished, unedited, imperfect, invalidated, but true as I understand them stories. With the willingness to be wrong, to be corrected, to be offensive, to be embarrassed.....So How many stories do we leave untold? Perhaps because we think they do not matter, or because they reveal too much of our selves, or because we assume no one would want to hear them, or we do not want to take the time to tell them? Write your story, speak your story, share your story, record your story, whisper your story, sell your story, sing your story, dance your story, act your story, capture your story, live your story..because you matter and your story may just be the beginning of readiness and receptive insight for a fellow journeyman or even for yourself....
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