Making Jesus Known: God’s Storytellers
We are story-tellers. From ancient epics to modern-day Instagram reels, from historical tomes to newspapers, in myths, sagas, poetry, songs, and the sheer us-centredness of much of our conversation, we seem hard-wired to pursue, record, invent, invest in, curate, share and enjoy stories.
It is an instinct that is divinely sanctioned. God has meant commemorative and oral story-telling to be a part of the life of his people, charging them to perpetuate and pass on the record of his work among them (eg Ex.12:24-27, Joshua 4:4-7, Joel 1:2-3). And this is on top of the written story that the Bible itself represents, and which gives us not only narrative but plenty of story-telling songs too. Miriam sings. Moses sings. Hannah sings. David sings A LOT.
In songs like theirs, perhaps even more clearly than in the narratives, we see that the main protagonist of the stories God’s people tell is God himself. Read Psalms 103-107, songs that tell the stories of creation, of rescue from Egypt, of the wilderness years, of entry into the land, and of the Lord’s dealings with his people, and notice how many lines begin with ‘He’, just how much is all about him. Even when Israel is doing the doing, it’s still all about him!
Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story
It’s actually the last of those songs, 107, that set me thinking along these lines. It begins:
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe
Those who have been saved by God – set free, brought out, released with debt paid – and who have experienced his love and goodness are to tell their story. There follow various examples of different people in danger or distress, some from identifiable moments in Israel’s history, others less specific. But they have in common the repeated refrain:
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he saved them/brought them out of their distress.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind
When God’s people bear witness to God’s wonderful deeds in rescuing them, they put on display his unfailing love, and he receives the thanks and praise that he deserves.
The most important story we can tell is of seeing God’s merciful hand in saving us.
Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their stories
If we rarely find ourselves telling the story of our redemption, perhaps it’s because few of the stories we tell daily – be they in person, in message-form, or online – have God as their main protagonist. We tell our friends and family what we’ve done today. Do we tell them what God has done in our life today?
Today he has shown us grace, delivered us from temptation, and equipped us to fight sin. He has demonstrated his generosity in what he has given us and mercy in what he has forestalled. In apparently small ways today, the God of the Big Salvation Story has seeded various mini-stories that reflect and point to the truths of the most important story.
Today God made a difference to our story in some way.
As I typed that, it brought to mind a chapter by Jackie Hill Perry in the collection Beautifully Distinct. In it she writes about the power of stories in shaping the way people think about God, themselves and the world around them – and the power of the stories we tell about ourselves to point people to Christ. I’ve just dug the book out again (no easy feat, as you’ll realise if you’ve seen the haphazard way our books are currently stored) and in the context of today’s musings, these words jump out:
We’re always telling stories, And speaking about God is really just finding a way to insert our story and his story into the common stories we’re telling and living all the time. (p.126)
And
Telling stories gets across the fact that the gospel doesn’t just save you but changes you daily.
People need to be able to see that the gospel works. (p.128)
Stories aren’t just a way to tell people the gospel of Christ, they are a way to display its ongoing relevance and impact, his daily presence, provision and purpose in our lives.
How to begin?
When do you give thanks to God for his work and provision over the course of your day? If you were recounting all he’s done for you today in the manner one of those psalms of praise and thanksgiving I mentioned earlier, what would you say?
Do you share stories from your day over dinner? Perhaps you could practise asking one another ‘What has God done for you today?’ In this way maybe we’ll grow in making God more central in our story-telling.
Do you update social media in some way? What story about God could you tell through those words or pictures?
What story are you likely to talk about from your day/week in your lunch break or as you jog with a friend or at the school gate? Where was God’s grace evident in anevent or circumstance? What phrase beginning ‘By God’s grace…’ could you add to your account of it?
Please let me know any other tips you have. I’m a very poor story-teller! But by God’s grace, I have the best story to tell and daily opportunities to relate it. So do you.
Let’s – we, the redeemed – tell our stories.
