Tell A Better Story...
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 1:30PM 
Greetings, Dear Friends!
And to those visiting, I say welcome! I post every Wednesday and my sole purpose is to nourish your soul along the way. Each month I give away a $10.00 Starbucks gift card to someone who posts on my blog. So leave a comment, share a story or insight, and just maybe you'll win a jolt of java for you and a friend!
As most of you know, I have a radio show,Live the Promise with Susie Larson The program now airs 6 days a week! Join us every weekday from 2:30-3:00 CST, and on Saturdays from noon to one, KTIS AM 900, on the Faith Radio Network, or listen online at: www.faith900.com We've had some amazing guests and some powerful dialogue. Hope you can join us!
Also, I want you to have the inside scoop. Be sure to check my Facebook page for a heads up on my weekly giveaways (that way you'll know when to call for a book you may want). I'll also post daily questions and may read your comments on the air.
Now on to my topic...
This week I had national recording artist, Sara Groves in studio as my guest on Live the Promise. We had a great conversation (you can access a podcast of the interview by using the link above). After the show, she and I got talking and ended up recording a short piece for Moody Radio. The gist of the short interview was this: we are all story-tellers in our own right. We tell a story to our children, our spouses, our friends, and even to ourselves.
In essence, our 'stories' are simply our perspectives on our lives, our circumstances, and the circumstances of those around us. Sara shared how many people looked at her tour bus and said, "Oh, I could NEVER travel like you do. I could never live on this bus!" She knew they were trying to empathize with her and to tell her what a good thing she was doing, but their words rarely felt encouraging. Life on the bus is a part of Sara's call, and she actually loves it. Even so, over time, those consistent words from others ate away at her own perspective. That is, until she recognized and redirected her thoughts and embraced her call once again.
She and I also talked about our own ability to talk ourselves right into a funk, by the way we speak about our laundry (or my email inbox), our weight or our finances. What do our kids hear us saying more often than not? If someone were to interview our friends and ask them about our consistent flow of words, what stories would they share? Ones of God's faithfulness and of our blessedness? Or those of our wretchedness and God's seeming distance from our circumstances?
Even when the apostle Paul was in prison recovering from a terrible beating, his response to his circumstances left others encouraged. What a challenge this is for us! Are others inspired by your response to affliction, or your response to God's delays, or by your reaction to the simple sameness of life?
This is not to say that we deny our pain or pretend it doesn't exist, but there is a way to talk about our circumstances in a way that inspires faith, and hope, and love.
The Bible says that the words of our mouths reward us as surely as the work of our hands (See Proverbs 12:14).
Think about that passage for a moment. If you have a job, you can count on your paycheck. And just as surely, you can count on the fact that your words are having an impact on your life, your health, your perspective, and the perspectives of those around you.
There's something wrong and something right with every part of this journey. May we look for and find the most redemptive parts, and speak often of those. May we give God the broken pieces of our lives and trust that He'll bring wholeness and healing at just the right time.
We are story tellers. May we tell our story from an eternal, faith-filled perspective.
~Until next week.
Reader Comments (10)
You are right. It's a great reminder for all of us, no? How easy we let 'gravity' take over and before we know it, our perspective is completely earth-bound and without promise. May we speak of our lives always from the perspective and whose we are and what we posses in Him! Bless you, sister!