:: in.a.mirror.dimly ::

Readers are attracted to writers who can tell a good story. I mean, who isn’t?  Personal stories are the very life-blood of blogs, with the best story tellers rising to the top with their tales of raising children, suffering impossible colleagues, and overcoming struggles.

For many Christian writers, their blogs are places to share what they are learning, how they have seen God at work, and what they believe. From blogs to books on Christian living to spiritual memoirs, the personal angle is important with Christianity because our faith is based on the incarnation of Jesus and the Spirit-empowered embodiment of his life among us.

If we aren’t living the truth, then the game is over for Christianity.

The Pitfalls of Personal Stories

Unfortunately, personal stories of faith can lead to the drawback of becoming too, well, personal. While we may aim to share how God is working in our lives, our stories can turn into trite little triumphs of our cleverness or insight.

I often feel this tension when sharing anything personal.  I don’t want to slip into a celebration of my perceived virtues.

Personal stories also fall short when we use excessive private details to draw in readers who are curious to learn more about our lives. In other words, we can encourage voyeurism, rather than sharing what God is doing in us. The former prompts readers to desire information about us, and the latter prompts readers to desire what God is up to, with our lives as more of side detail.

Perhaps we can ask ourselves, “Are readers walking away from this piece impressed with me or with what God is doing?”

The Benefits of Personal Stories

Besides keeping us focused on living the truth we profess, personal stories serve an important role as written testimonies that can encourage fellow readers. In fact, as a seminary student who has posted his fair share of abstract and generally useless posts on theology, philosophy, and Christianity, I think personal stories are more important than ever.

As we pray, study scripture, and live out of God’s empowering Spirit, we should have stories to share. That’s part of the fun of being a Christian—God works and we get to share that with others as witnesses. Do a search of the word “witnesses” in the book of Acts sometime. It’s startling to see how often that comes up.

We are witnesses, which is another way to say, we share personal stories of our faith. That’s how this is supposed to work.

When We Don’t Have Stories to Tell

Lately I was in the midst of a dry spell where I could hardly sit still to pray or read scripture for about a week or two. It was tough. I tried, but I couldn’t focus. If I had any stories to tell, they were in the past tense.

Finally, one morning I put off everything else I planned to do, and kneeled down to pray. In a rush God broke through, teaching me that I’d been too driven by lists and schedules, and that these means of organizing my career had taken over my spiritual life.

If you’re at a place where Christianity isn’t all that exciting or you don’t feel like you have anything to share, I encourage you to stop, relax a bit, and sit before God. Don’t expect anything. Just worship him for who he is, accept that he loves you, and ask him, “Now what?”

I can’t guarantee anything about what will happen next, but we were created to live in relationship with him. He will meet with us if we seek him. And when he meets with us, stories will soon follow.