Telling the Story

 

 

I  wrote a few weeks ago  about the Christnas gift my oldest daughter, Heather, and her family gave me this year.   There is a web site out there called StoryWorth where a person is prompted to write stories once a week for 52 weeks (one year) from a question that is emailed to you each week.  The recipient of the email then either answers the question in written form or they can call into a phone number and verbally answer the question.  When the 52 weeks are over,  StoryWorth prepares all of these stories in a book form and sends it to the giver of the gift.   

I am enjoying telling my story a little bit at a time over the course of a year.  I have a story to tell not because I am so special or so great but simply because all of us have a story to tell. As I prepared a few years ago for my final Sunday as pastor of a particular church, the music director asked me what was my favorite hymn.   In her kindness, she wanted for the congregation to sing my favorite hymn on my final Sunday as their pastor.   I told her without hesitation that my favorite hymn was “I love to tell story”.     “I love to tell the story of Jesus and His love,” the hymn says.   As I write these pieces each week about my story, I am also reminded again that I have a story to tell not only about my life, but also about “Jesus and his love”.    All who call themselves followers of Christ Jesus have that story to tell.   We can tell that story not just from a pulpit as pastors do, but we can also tell that story through who we are and what we do.  We can also tell that story through what we do not say and do.     We can tell the story of Jesus and His love through the way we treat and serve others through actions as simple as a smile.     I am sad to admit that sometimes I do not tell the story of Jesus and His love very well.    I need to do better and am still “striving to perfection”.   If you are a follower of Jesus, how are you doing telling the story of Jesus and His love?     You don’t owe me an answer, but some day  all of us will have to answer that question to God.   Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God,  I give you thanks not only for the people through the ages that told the story of Jesus to the world, but especially for those that told the story to me.   Help me to go and do likewise in word and deed;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.