THE POWER OF STORY



Your word is a lamp before my feet
      and a light for my journey.

                                   Psalm 119:105 CEB)
WWJD -- What would Jesus do?
WWJHMD -- What would Jesus have me do?

 Whichever one is your favorite, neither one does us any good if we don't know what Jesus did or taught.  How can we incorporate the story of God's Word into our lives if we haven't studied it?

 Oh, a few main ideas here and there, a piece of memorized scripture, an inspirational poster or coffee mug may be somewhat helpful, but having knowledge and understanding of scripture is more important.

 There reason is that stories give us metaphors to guide us and help us make decisions.  To use them as metaphors rather than just taking them literally requires understanding the context of the story because we aren't the original audience.  Then one must ask oneself two very important questions.  The first is "what God was saying to the people of the time?"  A good biblical commentary is helpful.

 The second one is "what is God saying to us today."  This one helps us take it out of it's orginal context and helps us look at the major themes.  

 We can also look at some stories for examples on how to handle problems.  For example, the story of the destruction of the walls of Jericho is good for tackling social justice issues in a community.

 God (always remember God is the leader) gave Joshua a plan (very important) and had Joshua:

  • Organize those who were concerned about the issue, the stake holders, which included oridinary people and people in leadership positions in the community.
  • Invite them to take part in the plan.
  • Was consistent in carrying out the plan, understanding it was going to take a commitment of time and effort.
  • Consistently got the word out in a number of ways involving stake holders from every level.
Such discernment of scripture and God's will always starts with prayer and enlightenment of the word by the Holy Spirit.  The lamp does us no good if it is not lit by the power of God's grace.

God's word is a lamp to guide our journey which lights our way, but it does no good if we don't know and understand it's stories. 

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