"Once upon a time..." those words have
invited children (and adults who know what's good for them) on journeys of imagination and excitement, suspense and hope, even courage and danger. There is nothing like a well told story to capture our attention, expand our vision and leave us transformed. Stories can also bring comfort and calm and I know one or two folk who listen to stories on sleep apps when they wake up at night, carefully chosen to settle and reassure us. And all of us who have been parents know that young children love being read to and especially hearing stories that include them in roles that shape events and show they matter.
We are a story telling people
and one of the greatest gifts we can give another person is the time and
attention to listen to their story, however mundane it maybe. I
once had a friend who would take his young daughter to visit a gentleman who
had early onset dementia. He would repeat the same stories often when
they visited. One day my friend asked his daughter if she was okay about
coming as she would hear the same stories again and again. She replied,
'that's okay, John is just telling us who he is.'
Or there is a story (!) of a
famous Rabbi who listened at some length to a woman talking about her geese. When
his disciples asked him why he gave so much time to this, he explained that her
geese were what mattered most to that lady. As a minister I hear
many stories and I learned early on to allow time for the telling of these and
not rush things...except in Vestry meetings obviously! Our recent
church magazine is an assortment of stories of different kinds, glimpses of
life of church members and in our community. This is also why we are
having a story telling evening to mark the first anniversary of the
lockdown. This honours our journey so
far and does what humans have always done in times of danger, to gather around
the fire and tell tales.
And here's the thing about
stories, humans have been sharing them from the earliest days as a way of
making sense of a world that often does not make sense. “Myth is a
timeless truth that happens all the time” as someone wisely said. For us as Christians on the journey of Lent
this is more poignant than ever. Here is
what Francis Spufford had to say: We don’t
have an argument that solves the problem of a cruel world, but we have a story. Or as GK Chesterton called it: The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Our personal stories are
important so never underestimate how valuable they are and how much of a gift
they can be to others. Don’t keep them
to yourself. And it is in the story of
God’s love and call to follow that our stories finally find their true place
and meaning and value. Story telling
helps us recover our wonder and reframe the world, opening us up to what may be
possible after all.
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