We All Have Our Stories

We all have our stories. Some chapters may have ended and can be discussed at length and at a distance with friends and family; other chapters are now in play, perhaps in serious suspense, as in the “is there cancer present or not?” Every day we continue developing our unique life stories.

The thing about our stories is, we are still living them. It is as if we are entangled as well as freed in our stories, and must live them through, to whatever end.

When we get to the other side of this life, I would not be surprised if God or God’s representative has us sit down on some comforting cushion and asks us a single question: “So, tell me your story.” That is, and hopefully with the memory enhancement of the Spirit of truth, we would be enabled to describe the key elements of our lives as they unfolded. What happened? Who loved us; whom did we love? What did we learn? What would we like to do over; what forget; what remember always?

Assuming we have any consciousness at all on the other side, assuming of course that there is an “other side”, hopefully we will be permitted to take with us our stories from this life, including especially our love stories. Who knows but that the reason for this creation itself is to generate stories, endless stories. Who knows but that God may be the ultimate story lover and creator. Perhaps even God enjoys a good story. The Bible is full of them.

To live a life is to play a role, hopefully the protagonist, in our very own most personal story, drama, comedy, play—call it what you will. As Shakespeare rightly said, “The play’s the thing.” Each of us has a story; members of the same family have surprisingly different stories, from their differing family positions and perspectives. There are doubtless as many stories out there as there are variations of musical melodies, of which there shall never be an end. So, which melody should or could be determined as not essential to the wondrous whole of music? None; they are all essential, and there forever, whether or not someone has heard them yet. Even in the final book of the Bible, the book of “Revelation,” it is said that the heavenly residents sang new songs with new melodies which had never been heard or sung before.

Whenever I read aloud an obituary while conducting a funeral service, of which there were hundreds, I would silently wonder about the life stories of the deceased. Who were their loved ones, their protagonists as well as antagonists? What might they have told heaven? Did they feel that their life was worthwhile? What would they like to do over again, and what never have to go through again?

How might it affect your life, if you understood yourself as well as those around you, as being in the midst of your respective stories? Surely you would quickly see that no life is truly boring; unexamined perhaps, but never boring. Many times in counseling, my clients would begin by saying that there is really very little of interest about their lives. Right—until they would open up and perhaps for the first time discover their inner as well as outer lives, their life themes and motifs, how their lives interplayed with the lives of others who impacted them.

Who knows but that meaning of our lives is hidden in our still unfolding stories.