The Power of a Good Story

(Posted March 5, 2025)

Have you ever noticed when Jesus wanted his disciples to remember what he was saying,

He almost always placed the lesson he taught inside a story? That’s because as human beings, we understand how people feel when there are important life lessons they are learning. We identify with them and the tale engraves itself on our hearts.

We find reassurance and even peace in a story. The kinds of stories we tell our kids at bedtime are calming enough to even scare away even the boogeymen in the closet. As children, when we listen to the rhythmic drone of the voice of someone who loves us, it can set everything right. After all, that rhythm is itself the heartbeat of love.

Stories Bind Our Experiences Together

Probably the time we need a good story the most is when we try to bind together all of our chapters of personal experiences, both the beautiful and the horrific, into our own life story. One of the best “writers’ manuals” for this process is the Bible, and especially for us Christians, the New Testament.

Luke the Gospel writer helps us understand the human experience of temptation by telling us the story of Jesus’ temptation after 40 days of hunger in the wilderness. We are all-too-well acquainted with those who would play the Tempter in our lives. Both Luke and Matthew provide us with 47 parables that are so well-known we know what they are just by their names: The Good Samaritan, the Prodigal son, the Mustard Seed, The Pearl of Great Price, the Lost Sheep…

Stories Close to God’s Truth

Stories like this that bring us close enough to one of God’s truths is truly what we mean when we talk about the Thin Places in our spirituality. This Sunday we’re going to listen to some stories from real life that underscore how our lives themselves are being written each day by The One Who Loves Us, more than anything else.

As Jesus tells the Tempter atop the temple, “man does not live by bread alone.” Come join us in a story fest. (Remember Daylight Saving Time starts this Sunday, and be there at 10, not at 11!)