The Power of Story

Everyone loves a good story. What’s the best story ever? Why is story so important to us in every area of our lives? Come with me and reflect the power of story and the greatest story of all time.

Story surrounds us everyday. In conversation we share the funny (or sometimes frustrating) things that happened to us at work and school. We read news stories and post stories on social media. We each have what we call our life story. The idea of story permeates every artistic medium – not only those that rely on written or spoken language but also those that use the visual language of line, color, and shape. While not every creative work is necessarily meant to communicate a complex narrative, the idea is central to many others. Why is story so prevalent across every area of life? Why is it so important to us? 

At its very heart, story is a form of communication. It is a vehicle to share our ideas, experiences, and beliefs with others, to create understanding and connection. God created human beings for relationship – with Himself and with each other. It is an integral part of our makeup. All of His ways for us are about these relationships – loving Him above all else, and looking out for each other.

Story is a bridge that creates connection. And story is about value. Like art, through story we seek to create and communicate significance and order in a world that too often feels ruled by arbitrariness and chaos.

We long to know that others have felt what we feel, experienced what we have experienced.

Stories have rhythm, plot, a series of ups and downs. We usually follow a hero (or maybe an antihero) as they face challenges, and we become invested because we face challenges too. We long to know that others have felt what we feel, experienced what we have experienced. And we want to see someone overcome their challenges, because all too often this is not how our own stories play out.

Sometimes the conflict, the main challenge, is obvious from the beginning. The hero longs for something more, for some change to come. In other stories, things start out well. Everything is okay. Then the conflict enters. A mistake is made. A villain appears. The story of humanity started out this second way. Perfect. We lived in relationship with God and with each other just as He designed. He provided for us everything we needed.

Then entered conflict. The fall. Instead of trusting in God’s perfect love for us, we betrayed Him, choosing to believe a lie. The lie whispers that God is holding back from us, that we need to look out for ourselves if He will not. We rejected Him and chose to go our own way instead, a way rooted in fear. This way brings us to death – both the physical death we see and experience in the world, and spiritual death, separation from God. Our relationship with Him was completely severed, and our relationships with each other were broken as well. We choose to satisfy our own needs and desires over those of others. The lie says that there is only so much and we need to take what we can, because no one else will provide for us.

We can still catch glimpses of the world’s original beauty and intent. We continue to reach out and share our stories.

Although our relationships are broken, they are still something we were designed for, an intrinsic need and desire we possess. So we continue to live in relationship with others. We can still catch glimpses of the world’s original beauty and intent. We continue to reach out and share our stories, longing for connection and understanding.

Now, in the best stories, there usually comes a point, amidst the string of smaller challenges and triumphs, where things reach the lowest low. It all comes down to the wire, now or never. This is the climax.

We still experience beauty and connection in the world, in spite of its brokenness. But it is still broken. We are still broken. And apart from God we are missing our ultimate purpose, the most vital relationship of all, the one that is life itself.

And here is the truth that is most painful to face: we are not the heroes of this story. We cannot fix what we broke. And we broke everything.

The climax is not only the lowest low; it is also the turning point. Though we betrayed God and we were cut off from Him, He did not give up on us.  But God did what we could not do. We were far from Him, but He came to us. He sent His Son, Jesus, who became human and walked with us – the full, perfect manifestation of God’s character. He lived exactly as God intended life to be lived – as we could not – in perfect, loving relationship with God the Father and others. He revealed to us the truth of God’s love and beauty. And at the cross, He died and took our place. He chose to take all of our brokenness and its consequences upon Himself. He was separated from His Father, bearing the punishment for our betrayal even though He had lived in perfect relationship with Him. And His perfect relationship was credited to us in place of our betrayal.

Jesus took what was impossible because of our betrayal and made it possible.

From the outside, it wasn’t something that looked like a triumph at first. It wasn’t how anyone expected the story to go. The Savior died. But God has another twist planned. On the third day after His death, Jesus rose to life again, defeating death forever. He took down every barrier that separated humanity from Himself, so that everyone person who believes in his work can live in perfect relationship with Him, the way that He planned from the beginning.

After the turning point of the climax comes the falling action. Not all of the loose ends are tied up yet. There still might be challenges yet to resolve, but the outcome is decided. The end is in sight. In God’s story – the story which becomes our own if we do trust Him – the falling action is happening right now. Jesus took what was impossible because of our betrayal – for us to have a relationship with God – and made it possible. He decided the outcome. We still see brokenness in our own lives and in the world around us. But Jesus is now active within us who trust, bringing healing to all of the places where we are broken. And in the world, He is active in spreading His story to every place so He can draw more and more people back to Himself.

This is the work of His Spirit. After He came back to life and returned to Heaven, Jesus sent His Spirit to live in every person who trusts Him. The Spirit calls us to God and empowers us to believe, and then the Spirit works in our lives to make us more and more into the people God intended for us to be. He shapes us into people who look more and more like Jesus, people who love God and who love each other, people who understand the truth. We don’t know how to live any other way than we always have, looking out for ourselves because we’re afraid otherwise no one else will. But the Spirit teaches us to live out of the truth that God has revealed to us in Jesus – the truth that He loves us and gives us everything we need.

This story transforms everything about us and the way we see everything around us.

So God restored our broken relationship with Him through Jesus’s sacrifice and resurrection. He works through His Spirit to heal the brokenness inside us. And He calls us and empowers us through His Spirit to share His story with others. This story, which is more than just a story, is called the Gospel, the Good News, and it is the way that God has chosen to bring healing to the world that is so broken. It transforms everything about us and the way we see everything around us. When we look at the world through the Gospel, everything begins to make sense and fall into place. Right now we still face challenges. Some days the brokenness of the world still feels overwhelming, and some days we struggle with believing the truth over the lie. But the tide has been turned. The outcome is decided, and we can see the end.

Jesus will return, and He will complete His work of restoring all things. He will create a new world, whole and perfect and free from all brokenness and death, just the way God intended in the beginning. Everyone who trusts Him will live forever in perfect relationship with Him. All of our brokenness will be healed, and all traces of the lie in our hearts, everything that separates us from God, will be gone forever. Those who don’t trust the truth will remain separated from Him in death. This is the end God prepares for His story.

Story is a tool that God uses to draw us to Himself. Story is in our DNA because He placed it there. Story holds power because your whole life is determined by the story, the narrative, that you believe. And the story that He gives to each of us, our life story, holds power when we trust Him. His story becomes our own and our stories become part of His greater one. His story gives our lives meaning, beauty, purpose.

So, reflect on your story. And reflect on His.