What's Your Story?

the Blog edition

So I spoke at the Hub on Wednesday night. I had a good time...I'll be honest, I started off a little shaky, but then I found a rhythm and began to feel like my old self again.

I found this poem that began as my inspiration for a reflection on Lent. It goes a little something like this:

I am a story
hoping to unfold
as my future meets my past
I am a tale
waiting to be told
with the right words, now, at last

During my talk I made the analogy that we often present ourselves as personal resumes, with only the highlights brought to the surface.

"What's your major?"
"What do you do?"
"Where are you from?"

These are all pieces of information that you can find on somebody's resume. This doesn't make up the wholeness of me. But sometimes we let it slide, don't we?

At one point during the talk I said that community only happens insofar as we are open, vulnerable, willing, and courageous enough to share our stories with each other. Our long, winding, epic Novels. Not our single sheet resumes.

I also mentioned that we have this nasty habit of censoring ourselves, don't we? But when we choose to edit our story and leave out integral, but perhaps embarassing, parts...we leave out part of us. Perhaps it's something that makes sense of something else. This is where courage and vulnerability come in. It's hard....this is the part of being in community that sucks! Because when you are in a community like ours, that has gone through some difficult times lately, you don't have the luxury of having shallow relationships. We should be digging deeper than we had before.

So, I guess to 'splain. No that will take too long. Let me sum up.

Enjoy each other. Eat meals with each other. Make sure you invite Singleton, he loves food. Play games with each other. Laugh with each other. Cry with each other. Do all the things that make up life with each other. Because as Kyle said it.....it's a gift. But don't let that be a gift that you keep all to yourself. I did that with my Erector Set when I was 10....I wasn't very social. Make it a gift that you share.....

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The poem and the reading that I used at the Hub is from a book entitled, plainly enough:

Story by Steven James, check it out. It's really good.