We love epic movies or books that tell amazing stories – we love them because they carry both character and reader out of the mundane and into adventure. We pour ourselves into the narrative because we believe that our own story is boring by comparison. We realize that we’ll never carry an evil ring to Mordor, or find a beast who becomes a prince, or crawl on walls and defeat supervillians, or play football for Notre Dame, no matter how hard we try. And because we know those things won’t happen, we believe our stories are not worth sharing, but I’m here to tell you that’s not the case.
Think about John Chapter 4 – A woman goes to get some water from a well, where she has a conversation with Jesus. She doesn’t get called into adventure or embark on an epic voyage, she just meets Jesus and interacts with Him, then she runs back to her town to tell everyone the story, and they’re all interested. It’s not an exciting story. It wouldn’t become a New York Times Bestseller. It’s just a simple story about a watercooler conversation, but it’s her story about meeting and knowing Jesus. If we know Jesus, we’ve got to share our stories too.
Jesus Himself did a ton of teaching using stories (we call them parables), so why don’t we do the same? We need to take note of the moments when we see God at work in our lives and in the world around us. When we make it through a tough or painful experience, when we see love shared and received, when we witness the triumph of good over evil, we can’t keep those things to ourselves!
Stories show ownership, passion, and experience. They communicate to the people around us about what we find important, and they let the world know what we believe and what has shaped us into the people we have become. If your faith is your own, where are your stories? Take some time to think deeply about how you’ve seen God at work, and then consider how to share that with others.
It doesn’t really matter if those stories are epic or exciting – when we share our stories about meeting and knowing Jesus, people will want to know more. You may not carry an evil ring into Mordor, but you can carry the Gospel into the world by sharing your stories about the work that God is doing in your life and in the world around you.
John 4:39 concludes this passage about the woman at the well – “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony…”
Her simple story led people to meet Jesus for themselves. Want to lead people to Jesus? Tell your story!
