I’ve been a storyteller from the moment I had words. I can’t help seeing stories and telling them. Sometimes it gets me in a mess.

No! Not THAT Story!

I ran into a friend at an essential oils event. She introduced me to her friends, and as we sat down to lunch together, she said, “Hey, tell them your story!”

Her suggestion surprised me. My story? Really? I’d just met these women, and we were laughing and talking about oils. My story is a little dark. It can bring a conversation down. But, I gulped, took a deep breath, and started in, “A few years back…”

My friend didn’t let me get far. She put her hand out and said, “Oh no. Not that story. Your oily story!” We all laughed, and I launched into the story of how I started using oils. A much better fit in our context.

I had a lot of feelings after that lunch, but one of them was gratitude. I was so glad to know that I had stories to tell other than the big one.

Your Life is Bigger than One Story

I sometimes fear telling my story because I don’t want people to think less of me. I don’t want one mistake or event to define me.

My mom held a big secret for more than sixty years. When my sister and I found out, Mom was afraid for anyone else to know. “I don’t want people to think of me as that girl who had a baby out of wedlock,” she said. She’d lived a lot of life since that time. She had built a reputation.

But when God brought her 65-year-old daughter and two new adult granddaughters into her life, she forgot all about how people saw her. She was delighted to see how God had redeemed her story. The more she told it, the more people rejoiced with her.

People had known a small part of her and loved her. But when they knew more they had more to love.

Like mine, my mom’s life was more than one story. And her story was bigger than her.

I waited and waited and waited for God.

    At last he looked; finally he listened.

He lifted me out of the ditch,

    pulled me from deep mud.

He stood me up on a solid rock

    to make sure I wouldn’t slip.

He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,

    a praise-song to our God.

More and more people are seeing this:

    they enter the mystery,

    abandoning themselves to God.

Psalm 40:1-3 (THE MSG)

Your Story is a God-Story

When I read the fortieth Psalm, I’m not all that concerned with how the writer got into the mud. The point of the story is the rescue. And the rescuer.

Some people may get their minds stuck on the mud or in the ditch when we sing our God-song, but it’s the people who see God in our stories and abandon themselves to Him who matter.

The Whole-Shebang

When you see God at work, it’s hard to stay quiet. Keeping even a little bit of it to yourself feels a little bit like hoarding a treasure. You want everyone to know what God’s done. You want them to know who God is!

I’ve preached you to the whole congregation,

    I’ve kept back nothing, God—you know that.

I didn’t keep the news of your ways

    a secret, didn’t keep it to myself.

I told it all, how dependable you are, how thorough.

    I didn’t hold back pieces of love and truth

For myself alone. I told it all,

    let the congregation know the whole story.

Psalm 40:9-10 (THE MSG)

God-Wonders and God-Thoughts

I know I talk too much. I enter just about every conversation telling myself to be quiet. To listen this time. And that’s not a bad thing. But then, I see something or hear something or remember something that God has done, and the words start tumbling out.  I just can’t keep quiet.  

The world’s a huge stockpile

    of God-wonders and God-thoughts.

Nothing and no one

    compares to you!

I start talking about you, telling what I know,

    and quickly run out of words.

Neither numbers nor words

    account for you.

Psalm 40:5 (THE MSG)

I have a lot of words. But as Amazing Grace (the RV) and I travel down the road, I hope there are more God-wonders and God-thoughts along the way than I could possibly have words to describe.

And I hope as you follow my journey, you’ll share your God wonders and God-thoughts with me! And by the way, there’s a whole lot more to Psalm 40 than what I’ve shared here. If you’ve never read it, you should find a Bible now, and turn there. It’s so good.

See you on the road,

Christi