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Your Story Matters

Sep4

Today’s 10-minute Tuesday prompt is “story.”

I have a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on my Discover Card, so I get to see it often.I’m typing this on my iPad today because my daughter is using my laptop for schoolwork while her computer is being upgraded. In the mobile version of the WordPress site, there is a space for a blog post title, and then under that the words “start your story here.”

Made me think for a minute. Where did my story start?

Several years ago, the staff of Cru was challenged at a staff conference to write out an essay that was called “I am from.” It’s a look back into your personal history to learn what it is that has made you what you are today. It’s not to give an excuse for our shortcomings because “that’s just the way I was raised,” but instead to give insight so that we know where to go from here.

fullsizeoutput_6badTherapist Adam Young talks about giving our parents too much of an out when we say that they did the best they could. I know I’ve done that. But if that were true, then my dad would have stayed with AA and found a way to curtail his drinking. My mom would have tried to learn how to be open hearted and really tried to know her kids. And their parents before them would have read and practiced and learned how to do better.

I have copied my “I am from” poem here, just to share a piece of my story. Consider writing one yourself, because your story really does matter, more than you think it does. I would also encourage you to listen to Dr. Young’s podcast, “The place we find ourselves.”

I am From

I am from the Golden State
I am from the winding, hilly roads overlooking the San Francisco Bay
I am from mountains & beaches, rocky shores & tide pools waiting to be explored
I am from sunshine & foggy mornings with the tips of the Golden Gate Bridge just peaking through.
I am from the country, the smell of alfalfa & the lowing of cattle
I am from searing heat & shimmering highways
I am from the Old Country, where garlic & olive oil permeate the air
I am from family, from privilege, a name & a reputation to maintain
I am from the land of bagpipes & brave hearts
I am from clan Grant, an unknown entity in my life
I am from a popular mother & a father who wasn’t sure who he was
I am from the affects of alcohol & disappointment & dying dreams
I am from generosity & volunteering & friendships that lasted through decades
I am from a love not sure about how to be expressed
I am from acceptance & forgiveness & new life
I am from purpose, from words knocking at the door, waiting to be let out
I am from unconditional love
I am from the heart of God, written on His timeline before it began

Let Us Reason Together

Aug28

IMG_6772Today is election day here in Florida, so I thought it might be appropriate to talk about “reason” as today’s 10-Minute Tuesday post.

I didn’t choose it; that really happens to be the prompt for today.

“Come now, let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18) seems like a good thing to do, doesn’t it? Only in today’s fractured and splintered world, “reason” seems to be the last thing people want to do.

Yell. Rant. Accuse. Complain. Those all seem to be more what people are doing these days. Fake news. Twitter politics. Innuendos instead of facts. We have lost our ability to talk to each other and listen. Especially listen.

I remember more than a decade ago when my church wanted to buy property across theIMG_3843 street from my house. Which happens also to be right across the street from a large church of another denomination. We had to go through a rezoning process, which should have been fairly clear cut.

But a large contingent from the other church decided to appear at the zoning meeting to try to get the project cancelled. Their “reasoning” was that another church would create a traffic problem since they themselves wanted to expand their facility to include a retirement center and day care and other things of that nature. So, we shouldn’t move in because they wanted to expand.

I remember sitting there and praying that someone on the zoning commission would hear past the rhetoric to what was really going on. I was glad to note that one of the commissioners addressed that very issue. You want to expand, so you don’t want another church moving in.

IMG_8307Our request was granted that day, and we have been in our building for more than 12 years now. The other church has yet to do their expansion. We live fairly peaceably with each other.

I tell that story to illustrate that we need to listen to the whole story. We need to see what we’re not seeing. We need to be patient and ask good questions and not jump to wild conclusions.

As Civil Rights activist John M. Perkins says in a 2015 article in The Table, “I believe today, God is calling us to come and reason together. In a land marked by the sins of racism, sexism, and all the other –isms, where we can’t disagree without also hating one another, it is time to have some meaningful dialogue. It is time for a new conversation.”

 

More Than Enough

Aug21

Today’s 10-Minute Tuesday prompt is “enough.”

IMG_0090We have an old black Lab, Berkeley, who is a big barker. He will go on and on for no apparent reason. Our house is on a cul de sac and we have a yard that goes all the way around the corner, so he can see every activity on the streets surrounding us.

And every movement is a threat, apparently.

We have tried many things to get him to stop, to no avail. Our latest effort is for everyone to use the same language all the time when he starts barking. We say, “That’s enough.”

It doesn’t do much good; he just keeps barking. What we seem to be saying when we’re saying “that’s enough” is “stop your incessant barking!”

Moms will say to their kids, “I’ve had enough of your constant fighting!” What she’sIMG_4195 actually saying is “I was done with it way before this.”

A bartender will say, “I think you’ve had enough, buddy.” What that means is, again, too much. I gotta cut you off.

But when we say that Jesus is enough, it turns the whole thing around to mean more than we’ll ever need. More than we would even think to ask for. Able in every way to meet our greatest needs.

CIMG5454And then there’s us. We are enough. We don’t need to add to who we are. We don’t need to be something we’re not. We need to think of ourselves as being everything that we are supposed to be. We have value because we are image bearers of God. We amount to something.

It’s important to see the context of the word. We are never less than enough; Jesus is always more than enough.

And my dog still barks way more than I want him to.