The Power of Our Stories
A Dive Collective member spotlight with Amber Hogan Jones
As a little girl growing up in a chaotic home, stories were to me what Mary Poppins’ umbrella was to her—a tool I could wield anytime and anywhere to help me take flight.
I scribbled poems in countless notebooks, hashing out my confusion and adolescent angst with a ballpoint pen and no small amount of dramatic flair. I spun tall tales for my siblings to distract us from the drudgery of chores or to pass the time on scorching summer afternoons. I told myself stories of a future I hoped for, one where I would be happy and safe and whole.
Looking back, I see that I didn’t tell myself—or anyone else—the story which most needed telling. I lacked the vocabulary, the imagination, and the courage to tell the story of myself, my experiences, my aching pain, and my improbable resilience. Therefore, I edited my story into an easily communicated form which allowed me to blend in but which also had an unforeseen consequence. My compressed story allowed me to present a version of myself to the world which made us all more comfortable but the trade-off was my umbrella. I could no longer take flight.
As I began my journey of surrender to Christ, I threw myself into the promise that I could be a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The possibility of casting off my old story was thrilling! I became a wife and a mom and immersed myself in those roles as well. The story of my becoming grew less relevant as I planted my feet ever firmly into the new life I had been miraculously given. I was determined to live out the future I’d dreamed of as a girl and that meant leaving behind that little girl entirely.
The problem with cutting up our stories is that we can’t; at least, not for long. Eventually, God will drag them out and force us to reckon with them. Nothing is wasted in the hands of our Father. When God informs us that “all things work together for the good” of those who belong to Him (Romans 8:28), He means all things. God wants to use our stories—especially the parts which are hard to tell—to illuminate His character and demonstrate His love. In order to use our stories, He first must help us to understand them and tell them well.
Understanding Our Stories
Our Bible is replete with examples of God teaching us how to understand our stories. The word remember occurs over one hundred sixty times in the Old and New Testaments, most often in the contexts of God compelling His people to remember who they are, where they’ve come from, and His presence and activity in their lives. This emphasis on remembering suggests that we can’t understand our God-stories by crafting abbreviated, comfortable versions for ourselves. Instead, we have to do the hard work of remembering reality. From what dire situation have we been rescued? From what villainy have we been delivered? What disease did God cure? What dead things have been brought to life? These remembrances are the foundation upon which our stories and our faith are built. God wants us to remember, to feel, to embrace, and to integrate our stories so that they can become useful in His hands.
Telling God Our Stories
If the book of Psalms exhibits nothing else, it is that God values our unvarnished stories and He wants to hear all about them. When the psalmists declare their anger, vent their outrage, pour out their pain, list their suffering, confess their sins, and shout their adoration and gratitude to God, we aren’t just observing humanity in all its stunning variety. We’re receiving an invitation from God to do the same. He has provided the Psalter as a guide for telling our stories to Him because He knew we’d need permission to approach Him with the good, the bad, and the ugly, and we’d need convincing to believe that He actually cares. When we consider Christ and how He stopped all that He was doing to integrate the stories of those coming to Him for help, we can be doubly persuaded that our God welcomes our words with interest and individual care (Mark 9:17-22; John 4; Luke 24:13-39; John 20:24-29; 21:15-25, etc.).
Telling Others Our Stories
God wants us to tell our stories to others, and not just the parts that make us feel good. In fact, God is invested in writing our stories so that the bad parts highlight His goodness and mercy. In other words, the bad parts are the best parts! From Israel recounting the times they were forgiven and restored, to Jesus sending the sinful and the sick back to their communities with deliverance on their lips—our God desires that we take our true stories and give them away to others so that they can see what He’s like and what He can do.
The work of remembering and re-telling, of using our spiritual eyes to see God in every moment and every circumstance is always worth the effort because it offers God the opportunity to show off! God provides us, through His Word and His Spirit, the vocabulary, the imagination, and the courage to do this worthy work, even when it’s hard.
As I’ve journeyed long with Christ, I’ve come to see that abandoning the story of myself is the opposite of what God wants for me. I see now that my story, in God’s hands, becomes pure gold. I don’t have to pretty it up, I don’t have to boil it down, and I don’t have to be afraid to face it. I no longer use story like an umbrella to escape; nor do I avoid story in order to keep both feet on the ground. With the help of my loving Father, story has become a bright, luminous beacon, calling me always back to my true home.
Written by Amber Hogan Jones
Be sure to listen to our interview with Amber on the Dive Collective Podcast!
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Another must-read is her post, The Gold in the Book of Ruth!
About the Author
Amber Hogan Jones
Brunswick, Maryland
Amber is a writer, speaker, and seminarian living in Maryland with her handsome husband, seven kiddos, and fabulous fur-friend Oz. She hosts a contemplative podcast, The Gold Digger Show, focused on inspiring us to find the goodness of God, especially when it looks like there's no good to be found.
You can find her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @amberhoganjones.
To learn more about Amber, visit her website www.amberhjones.com!
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