Don't Hog Your Journey

Every morning I faithfully turn on the Today show to find out what they have to tell me what is going on in the world today.  I still remember one morning, in the
Fall of 2007, watching Ann Curry interviewing one of their own reporters, Hoda Kotb.  It was a very powerful interview about her own battle with breast cancer.  She told how she had been through every emotion possible in her battle, and how difficult it had been for her. 

As she continued to tell her story of survival I was struck by what she said about why she decided to publicly tell her story after keeping it private for so long.  Here is an excerpt taken directly from the interview: “Two events convinced Kotb to go public with her experience with breast cancer. The first was meeting a stranger on a plane who told her, “Don’t hog your journey.” “And when he said that, my eyes just opened wide,” Kotb said. “He told me that I could keep everything for myself or I could use it to help people. So right then and there I told myself that when it’s time, I’m going to do it.”

As I heard her describe this part of her story I couldn't help but think about what it would be like if we all told people around us about our own journey of faith.  Some of us don’t share our journeys because we think that no one wants to hear them.  We think that they are not very interesting and people probably won’t really get much out of them anyway.  We may think that it is too personal and we don’t want to share it with people we don’t know and trust.  Or we may think that we don’t have a journey to share in the first place. 

I remember when I started working at a Christian camp in college I worried that the kids wouldn't want to hear my story because it was boring.  I grew up in the church, I never really did anything bad, I didn't have any dramatic conversion story to tell, it was just a plain story.  One of the other very wise staff members said, “You know what, that is going to be just like most of the kids here.  Most of them have not been into drugs, or had a dramatic conversion; their stories will be a lot like yours.  You need to tell your story because they will be able to relate to your story.  Your story will be able to encourage them and give them hope because it looks like their own story.” 

The reality is that we all have a journey of faith.  It might have dramatic twists and turns, or it may be fairly straight forward, but all our journeys are important.  Just by telling about our own journeys we are able to encourage and help people on their own journey.  It is important to remember that it is not our own testimonies that bring people to Christ, but God alone who is able to do that (Romans 1:16-17).  We tell our stories because we know God can do amazing work, and we know God can use our journey to bring glory to Him.  In telling about our journey we are able to relate to one another and to be encouraged by one another.  We begin to realize that we are not alone and that there are other people like us who have gone through similar things. We are able to see hope for our own lives in the journeys of others around us.  As the man on the airplane so aptly put it, don’t hog your journey, use it to help those around you grow in their own journey of faith and don’t be surprised when you are encouraged in return.