What's a story?

Stories have a wimpy reputation. 

I used to think they’re for children, or for entertainment.  Grownups like meat, and stories are an appetizer.  They’re OK to soften hearts, to prepare for the meat.  They’re OK to use to illustrate something.  But to tell the truth you need direct, to-the-point speaking, lecture or preaching.  Stories cannot stand alone and communicate a significant, meaningful message.

Now I think it’s both.  Overt instruction and storytelling both have their way of getting something done. 

When you hear the word ‘story’ you might think of a made-up thing, and it may be.  But a story is often just a description of something that happened.  It has a plot and characters and it’s all connected.  Like the Bible.  Like living.  And like overt teaching, a story can be effective or ineffective.

I could overtly tell you you should do something to help the people in Haiti and that you should organize something in your circle of influence and show the love of Christ.  I could remind you that Jesus said what you do for the least of these you do for him and how can the love of God be in you if you don’t help? 

And I could tell you if you would do something, your doing might be contagious and you’d be surprised and overjoyed at how God caused people to react to your giving, which is what 2 Corinthians 9 said would happen.  And that you can make a difference and you can inspire others to, too.  I could tell you all that and it would be true and right and good.

That would be one way.

Another way – not a superior way but a different way – would be to let you hear a story saying the same thing.  This was from last month when Renee called me on the radio:

Renee tells a story

Telling a story is the primary verbal way of accounting for life the way we live it in actual day-by-day reality. There are no (or few) abstractions in a story - story is immediate, concrete, plotted, relational, personal.

And so when we lose touch with our lives, our souls - our moral and spiritual, our God-personal lives - story is the best way of getting us back in touch again. Which is why God's Word is given for the most part in the form of story.

Eugene Peterson