When I was a child, I loved reading fantasy and science-fiction novels. I wouldn’t just read these books—I would devour them. I especially loved the feeling of being transported away to strange and mysterious lands, of joining in on epic quests and battles against the forces of evil.

Many of us adults are not positively inclined to the idea of story. While we may indulge in the newest superhero film or the trending K-drama, we try our best to remain grounded in reality. The societies we live in reinforce this attitude, dissuading us from chasing fantasies and silly dreams.

But whether we are aware of it or not, stories have a great deal of influence on our lives. As Stephen Crites has shared,

The stories people hear and tell, the dramas they see performed, not to speak of the sacred stories that are absorbed without being directly heard or seen, shape in the most profound way the inner story of experience. We imbibe a sense of the meaning of our own baffling dramas from these stories, and this sense of its meaning in turn affects the form of a man’s experience and the style of his action.

To put it simply, humans are drawn to, dependent on, and shaped by the stories we hear and tell. Looking back, I’ve come to see that the stories I read during my youth helped shape the way that I see the world and the values that I live by.

As Christians, our individual stories are tied to the great story, the story of the Bible. The gospel, we must remember, is not a set of rules or propositions, but is the story of our God working in the world to redeem his creation for himself. Theology, as well, is more than abstract concepts and theories, but is reflection on the story of God, ultimately leading to our participation in that story.

We must be careful, therefore, not to forget that story, but to repeat it. Throughout the Old Testament, the refrain of “remember” is a call to retell the story of God’s salvation to oneself, to others, and to the next generation. Confessional statements in the New Testament similarly invite believers (and non-believers) to speak aloud that story and, in doing so, participate anew in it. Hearing the story, telling the story, joining in with the story, are essential for Christian life. This is why sharing personal testimonies (to yourself and to others) is so important: it is the framing of your own story in light of God’s story.

We must also be careful to resist dangerous and misleading stories that lead us away from God’s story. By this I do not mean all secular media (as there is some goodness in it), but stories that intentionally distort the gospel: narratives like Christian nationalism or meritocracy or the prosperity ‘gospel’. As Christians, we must better understand God’s story in order to be able to challenge and question the stories that the world tells us or even the stories we tell ourselves. We must instead learn to seek out good stories, stories that point back to and elevate the greatest story.

For Discussion

1. Apart from the Bible, what stories or narratives have influenced you?
2. What do you think are the most influential narratives in society today?

Footnote

¹ Stephen Crites, “The Narrative Quality of Experience,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 39, no. 3 (September 1971): 304 (291–311).