THE POWER OF STORIES

We become the stories we tell and celebrate. We live vicariously through characters–whether fictional or real–and explore meaning, desires, and truth. Especially at young ages, stories are life-shaping tools. They frame our reality and expectations, our hopes and fears. Stories become our answers to meta-questions: who am I? what is my purpose? how should I live? where are we going? Depending on which stories you tell and celebrate, the answers will differ. Therefore, telling good and redemptive stories is a vital step in educating and shaping our souls.

Our culture is using stories to answer life’s big questions. Some of the best kids programming today is striving to offer moral lessons on kindness, courage, equality, and hope. Yet, there are also many dark lessons coming through modern story-telling as well. Why does programming shift progressively darker as it becomes more “adult”? Stories transition from moral lessons to hopeless meditations of life’s darkest places. Why are these stories celebrated and worth hours of our meditation? What are we looking for in these dark stories? Why is watching a character’s degeneration into violence, unfaithfulness, corruption, and wickedness, considered entertaining?

Now, good and redemptive stories don’t deny or whitewash the darkness. The Bible contains dark characters, wicked motivations, and evil actions. Cain kills Abel. King David sleeps with Bathseba and then kills her husband. Judas betrays Jesus to be crucified for 30 pieces of silver. Yet, these moments of darkness are not celebrated. Rather, these dark actions are woven into a larger redemptive narrative that upholds both moral goodness and the promise of God’s just response. Ultimately, in the Bible evil is either forgiven by God’s grace or judged by his righteousness. So, in the Bible darkness is not a meditation for its own sake, but given to frame and tell the larger historical, redemptive story.

BECOME A REDEMPTIVE STORYTELLER

¹ O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying, ² for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—³ stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. ⁴ We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.

Psalm 78:1-4 NLT

We need to become redemptive storytellers. In Psalm 78 we are called to pass on the story of God’s redemption to the next generation. We should daily and weekly gather children and young people together to tell them the biblical narrative and shape their souls with its truth. God is real, all-powerful, and sovereign over all creation. There is good and there is evil. We must stand for good and resist the evil. God fights for his people and has demonstrated his loving kindness through covenants with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and ultimately given us the new covenant in Christ. There is forgiveness and hope through the redemption offered in Jesus Christ. His sacrifice on the cross and victory over the grave should shape every part of our storytelling. The gospel is the meta-narrative for the Christian soul.

We become the stories we tell. So, tell redemptive stories. Tell stories that celebrate goodness, sacrificial love, faithfulness, patience, and forgiveness. Share your personal experiences of redemption. Tell even the shortest stories of goodness that happened in the day. Be cautious of meditating on lies and darkness without a redemptive purpose. Guard your heart and your children from that programming that seeks to conform you to the ways of the world. Instead, think on what is true and pure.

⁸ And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Philippians 4:8 NLT

As a follow-on to this post, I’m going to launch a new type of post called “Redemption Stories”. I’ll capture both modern and ancient stories of goodness in the face of evil. Please, use them for personal meditation or read them to your children. I hope to become a better redemptive storyteller to my family and community. In fact, I have already written my first Redemption Story and hope you enjoy it!