Stories have the potential to heal.
In fact, stories are what give light to that desire
we have to be happy. We want our lives to mean
something. This desire for meaning is the
originating impulse of a story.
Do you know why we tell stories?
We tell stories because we hope to find or create
significant connections between things. I like what
Dr. Daniel Taylor says about stories, “Stories link
past, present, and future in a way that tells us
where we have been (even before we were born), where
we are, and where we could be going.”
Our stories teach us that there is a place for us;
not only do we fit in, but we are needed.
Here is a simplified explanation of how stories
heal: when we tell our story it is no longer just
mine but it is ours. In enabling another to
understand and have empathy, we move out of the
sense of isolation the experience fostered and into
community, a requirement for healing.
This past Sunday in church we read from 2 Kings and
explored the story of Naaman. We touched based on
all that went into the mighty warrior’s healing.
From the nameless slave girl who spoke up when she
wasn’t supposed to about the prophet who could help
heal Naaman, to the muddy Jordan River that was
unlike the other magnificent waters with which
Naaman was more familiar. His reluctance and pride
prevented him from the healing he needed—a healing
that wealth and power couldn’t provide. Still, it
was his own servants who had to convince him to
enter into the healing narrative of God in the
little river.
It took a hodgepodge of people to help heal Naaman.
Healing didn’t happen until Naaman gave himself
completely to the process. He also had to accept the
help he probably wasn’t expecting from a group of
unnamed people. Naaman in the end has a story to
tell, one of healing.
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At the end of my sermon I made a
request…extended an invitation of sorts to you. I
offered up two questions that I think can help us in
telling our stories of healing.
• From what surprising place or person has your
healing come?
• If you believe healing is given and not purchased,
where are you being led to give healing today?
Finally, I asked if you all would be willing to
share your stories with me. Some of you have
already. I want to hear your stories; not to be
nosey but to enter into your narrative and to see
you tell your story of how you know healing!
Friends, your story is beautiful. Your story is
needed to help heal a broken world. Your story is
needed to reassure the rest of us that we not alone
in this world. Rather, we have each other.
[Adam Quine of First Presbyterian Church in
Lincoln] |
