Over the past year, there have been many days where I have been overwhelmed and enamored by the goodness of God and the intense joy of living fully for Him. There have been countless moments I can’t believe I get to have a front-row seat of the work He’s doing in the lives of my friends, family members and women in the city.

And then there have been just as many days I’ve grieved the life I thought I would have by now, the “mile markers” others are passing while I at times feel stuck at a standstill. My soul sister Kathleen Kelly from “You’ve Got Mail” said it best: “Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life – well, valuable, but small – and sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven’t been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

In both the secular and spiritual world, stories are incredible change agents. Stories teach. Stories inspire and encourage. The best stories strike a chord of harmony in the hearts of their audience. But these stories, when actually lived out, take time. A life surrendered includes pain, moments of disillusionment, loss and grief. A life surrendered, however, also includes victory, moments of deep joy, celebration and purpose.

When we allow the Author of Life to author our lives without our interference, our numbered days are powerfully transformed into anchors, arrows and admission tickets.

“It doesn’t take long to write things of which you know nothing. When you write of actual things, it takes longer, because you have to live them first.”

from “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith

Stories as Anchors

I love the story of the exodus in Scripture, and its echoes reverberate throughout the rest of the story of the Bible. God knew we are a forgetful people, and so He was constantly telling the Israelites to remember — remember the ways God had been faithful to protect, provide and lead them out of slavery and through the wilderness to the Promised Land. “Take care lest you forget” is a loving warning in Deuteronomy 8, for example, because if we forget, we will fall quickly to self-sufficiency — a path of instant gratification but long-term confusion and chaos, as any one of us can attest to if we were to be honest.

Two of the ways He called the Israelites to remember His faithfulness were through omers of manna and stones of remembrance. In Exodus 16, we read how the Israelites began complaining (again!) just days after the Lord had supernaturally rescued them from their Egyptian oppressors. They began to look back on their slavery with rose-colored lenses and grumble that they should have never left. God heard their cries and mercifully provided for their needs through manna. The name literally meant “what is it?” …because that’s a pretty understandable response when bread sweet like honey is falling from the sky for you to eat every day. At the end of this chapter, we see the Lord commanding Moses to keep an “omer” (an ancient measuring unit, so imagine a container) of manna to be “kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread which I [the LORD] fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 16:32).

The stones of remembrance, found in Joshua 4 were literally stones taken from the bottom of the Jordan River. God (again!) separated a very large body of water for the Israelites to cross over on dry land. (Side note: why don’t we talk about this second water parting ever?) These stones (12 total, one for each tribe of Israel) were collected “as a sign among [the people]. When [their] children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then [they were to] tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever” (Joshua 4:6-7).

As we “share the stones and collect the manna,” we anchor ourselves deeper in God’s constant character and His faithfulness in the past, present and future. But we do not anchor ourselves so as to remain complacent or hoard His goodness for ourselves. As we open our eyes to His faithful working in our stories, we are called to go and tell, so that others might know Him as well.

Stories as Arrows

“There are many who say, ‘Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of Your face upon us, O LORD!’ You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.”- Psalm 4:6-7

In many seasons of my life, I have strived to curate the details of the story I share to primarily be my strengths, in fear that I will lead others astray — from the Lord and from a high view of myself. For a long time, I was very hesitant to share parts of my story out of fear of shame that I would be labeled by my past weaknesses and failures.

By God’s grace, He used that and is still working. More and more I’m seeing how people are craving authentic faith and discipleship. Are we — am I — more concerned with maintaining a certain image or being an Image Bearer (Genesis 1:27; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18)?

The past few months, I spent a lot of time in the Gospel accounts of the woman struggling with a chronic bleeding disorder (Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56). One of the biggest takeaways I have from her story is precisely that — how she courageously shared her story and how the Lord used it as a powerful testimony for others.

This woman, wrestling with many “shameful” labels in that ancient society, boldly comes to Jesus, simply and humbly seeking to just touch the hem of His garment to be finally healed. When she is healed instantly, Jesus does not let her get away — not to humiliate her but to honor her. He seeks her out and calls on her to share her story. Luke writes,

“And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before [Jesus], declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched Him and how she had been immediately healed” (Luke 8:47).

Jesus commends her for her faith and, I believe, uses her as an example for Jairus, the religious leader struggling to believe his daughter will actually be healed, as well as for us today.

Our stories can be powerful arrows pointing to the Savior if we are courageous and humble enough to allow them.

Stories as Admission Tickets

“It is no accident that we were born in the same epoch and that our stories have twined in this time and in this place. Let us, therefore, go forth and steward one another’s stories.” – from “A Liturgy for Leavings,” Every Moment Holy, Vol. I

In the first chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul writes,

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3-7).

As I have walked with the Lord through some incredibly low and dark valleys these past fifteen years particularly, I’ve increasingly experienced the beautiful gift of seeing how He uses our pain as “admission tickets” into others’. It’s one thing to share a Hobby Lobby Bible verse quote with someone walking through suffering and then go about your day.; it’s another thing to sit across from someone in pain, and through tears, hold their hand and whisper, “I know.” The times I have been able to give comfort to — and receive comfort from — someone experiencing similar pain have been some of the most bittersweet moments. In those moments, I clearly sense the hand of God, and I am reminded afresh how beautiful it is to allow Him to write our story unhindered. Not that we can thwart His plan at all, but it’s so much more freeing to truly hand the pen to Him.

People want to share their stories. Church, are we listening? Church, are we speaking ours, giving glory and honor to Him?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alecia lives just outside of Detroit and works at a pregnancy center in the city. She spent a few years teaching middle school English before the Lord redirected her life to pursue His calling to full-time women’s ministry. She’s in the final stretch of her time in seminary and looks forward to seeing where the Lord will lead next! In her free time, Alecia enjoys working out on her make-shift “Peloton,” trying new coffee shops with friends, reading nonfiction, and spending time with her family. She writes on singleness, God’s character, and the relevancy and beauty of sometimes obscure Bible passages at her blog aleciahinston.com.