Our Story, History, and His Story

“What’s your story?” Has anyone ever asked you that? Because each of us has a story. In fact, as my late friend Dave Stoddard used to say, there’s always a “story behind the story.” That’s one of the things that make every one of us so interesting and intriguing. 

Some would like to pigeon-hole us into convenient little categories, assigning one-size-fits-all labels. But in reality, we’re complex individuals with stories behind our stories – sometimes exhilarating, sometimes tragic, and usually somewhere in between. Many of us have spent moments in our lives wondering, “Who am I?” However, we rarely encounter people that ask us, “Who are you?” and are genuinely interested in hearing our answer.

We all have a unique story to tell one another.
For believers, it's also God's story.

The panhandler we spot on the street? He has a story. The nurse in the hospital’s intensive care unit? She has a story. The executive speaking animatedly into the smartphone at the coffee shop? Single parents wrangling toddlers filled with energy? The placard-carrying protester? They all have their own unique stories.

Our stories are imbedded in history – our personal history: backgrounds, key events, experiences good and bad, values and beliefs that have combined to shape us into the individuals we have become and are still becoming.

Within the family of faith we often celebrate stories of lives intersecting with a Person, Jesus Christ, who oversees a lifelong process of transforming us into what 2 Corinthians 5:17 calls “new creations.” We call these stories “testimonies,” and for well over 30 years I’ve had the privilege of writing many of them in the form of articles and even books.

Time after time, these have given me opportunities to see God in a way different from what I’ve seen in my own life. They’ve expanded my understanding of Him, appreciating how He’s worked in the lives of other people. Their stories – their histories – are actually His story in them.

Like a captivating novel, these real-life stories don’t end with an opening chapter. They become personal testimonies that grow and develop with the passage of years, even each passing day. And like a novel we can’t put down, His story in each of us includes twists and turns we never envisioned.

But our stories, our testimonies, aren’t precious gems for hiding away. They’re intended to be used and shared. They’re beneficial in many ways, including these three:

Personal edification. The faith journey isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. Reflecting back on our lives with Jesus a year or two, or more, we can perceive some of what the Lord has been doing over that time. Like watching a plant grow one day at a time, spiritual growth usually is indiscernible from one moment to the next. But comparing where we were years ago with where we are today reminds us of God’s faithfulness in our lives, how He has provided and intervened for us at crucial moments.

In its entirety, 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” This “newness” isn’t instantly complete, but the result of God changing us a little at a time. That’s so one day we will experience the promise of 1 John 3:2, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

Mutual encouragement. When we hear from one another what the Lord has been doing in our lives, it gives new understanding of who He is, how He works, and why our faith in Him is more than a wish or a hope-so – a confident, unwavering assurance of His presence and transforming power. I think of many friends whose stories inspired me as I learned about God’s work in lives very different from mine.

In his second letter, the apostle Peter mentioned another apostle, Paul, who couldn’t resist telling what Jesus had done for him: “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him” (2 Peter 3:15). Another passage admonishes, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:23-24).

Our experience. One of the great things about a personal testimony is that it’s irrefutable. People may disagree with our theology, or spiritual practices and traditions. But our testimonies – God’s story in us – come from what we know firsthand, our personal experience. In my own life, being made a “new creation” has included dispelling much of the anger, anxiety, selfishness and other flaws that ruled my life for many years. I’m still being “transformed by the renewing of [my] mind” as Romans 12:2 states, but today I’m quite different from the person I used to be.

And this we long to share with others. As yet another apostle, John, wrote, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life…. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us…” (1 John 1:1-5).

Through our testimonies, we can share God’s story with others whenever the opportunities present themselves. Then we can be “ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15).

A Blip . . . Or a Ripple?

These tire tracks in the snow bear a similarity to the ripples
radiating outward, created by a pebble thrown into a pond.

I’ve never been in an air traffic control tower, but have seen videos of how radar is used for tracking incoming airplanes. A line sweeps around the screen and blips briefly illuminate to reveal the presence of aircraft in the vicinity. These blips quickly disappear, usually to reappear with the next sweep of the radar screen.

Contrast that with pebbles thrown into a pond. After striking the pond surface, the pebbles disappear below the surface, but in their wake a series of ripples radiate from point of impact. Before it disappears, the pebble’s presence is “memorialized” as the ripples spread outward.

The latter, I believe, can represent the impact of our lives. Viewed within the context of many thousands of years of human existence – not to mention the scope of eternity – a single life may seem nothing more than a pebble falling into a pond, never to be seen again. But the ripples it causes show the impact of that life, one that could continue indefinitely.

Recently I wrote about my longtime friend Dave Stoddard, a larger-than-life individual whose time on earth ended unexpectedly at the age of 60. He spent much of his life investing in the lives of others – mentoring, coaching, teaching, encouraging, challenging, and sometimes chastising, all aimed at helping them to develop personally and professionally to reach their fullest potential. While Dave’s life might have appeared to some as a “blip” on a chronological radar screen, all who knew him realize his life was like the ripple that continues to radiate wider and wider.

At the visitation time and memorial service, several hundred men and women gathered to celebrate Dave’s life, share stories about him, and convey how he had touched their own lives. Many of them expressed their desire to have a similar impact on other people.

When Dave founded Leaders Legacy in 2000, he incorporated an image of ripples into the logo. This seems all the more appropriate today. He and I often talked about a leader’s true impact not being what happens while he or she is on the scene, but what happens after they leave. Will the leader’s impact look like a blip…or an ever-widening ripple?

The best possible example of this is Jesus Christ, who was the guiding force in Dave’s life. During His lifetime, Jesus was a novelty to many, a curiosity people followed just to see what He would do next. When His earthly days were over, Jesus left behind only a small, rag-tag band of men that hardly looked like world-changers. Yet 2,000 years later, Christ followers have multiplied, millions upon millions around the world.

God promises we, too, can have a profound, eternal impact on the lives of people around us. In Isaiah 43:4 the Lord states, “Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life.” When we willingly and sacrificially give from our lives for the benefit of others, God will reward our faithfulness.

In John 15, Jesus used the analogy of a grapevine to explain the mission He had for His followers. As He concluded, Jesus explained, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that remains” (John 15:16).

There are many endeavors and enterprises we can engage in and enjoy, but their impact will be brief. Even celebrated entertainers, athletes, business and civic leaders that receive much media attention are quickly forgotten when their day in the spotlight has ended. They may have achieved their 15 minutes of fame, but many had little long-lasting impact on the world around them.

They’re like shooting stars, sighted and then forgotten as they disappear in the evening sky. God’s desire for our lives, however, is to be more like the ripple in a pond, continuing to widen long after the pebble that started it has vanished from view.

If you were to assess your life to this point, would you say it’s more likely to produce a blip – or a long-lasting ripple?