Story…Redeemable, #2

Back in April, 2014 the (in)Real Life conference was based on telling your Story.  I was blessed to attend this video conference with a group of women who were meeting together at a book launch retreat in Tennessee. This retreat was a gathering of women who had all been on Jo Ann Fore's book launch team for her book, When A Woman Finds Her Voice. It was a perfect combination, a gathering of women who were excited about the message of Jo Ann's book,  and the conference about telling your story!

We listened to speakers talk about Story and we talked about telling our own stories over the weekend, but there was one point in the weekend for me that seemed to be a living illustration of the importance of story. That point in time occurred in an outing we took to a store called Redeemables Upscale Resale. 



Redeemables is a wonderful store filled with all kinds of treasures. The two energetic and fun ladies who run the store, Debbie and Sherry, take pleasure in taking unwanted items and restoring and/or repurposing them…"redeeming" them into beautiful treasures. 



 Their motto: "Everyone is redeemable and most everything is redeemable!"

When we entered the store they had us gather around them as they shared their own story of how their friendship became this wonderful partnership. They lived out their motto not only in the fulfilling of this longtime dream of owning and running this store, but of the ministry of redeeming lives through their involvement with Rise Up , a youth development and mentoring program that  Sherry and her husband had begun around 20 years ago. Sherry and Debbie met while working in that ministry. 

This store represents not only redeemed objects but redeemed lives as they also employ and train young women who were students from the Rise Up program. As these girls work in the shop they see, touch, and experience a very visual illustration of the patience and work it can take to 'redeem' an item…to take something broken and restore it to something that is even more original and creative than before it was discarded. They also experience the love and grace that it takes to redeem a life. 

I loved this store and these women for being that living illustration of how our own stories can reveal and illustrate the redemptive work of our savior, Jesus Christ. 

If we allow Him into our lives, He takes those broken places…
 those things in our lives that we look on with shame,
 those things that make us feel like a failure, 
 those things that make us feel we can never be important or useful again,
 those things that we think are damaged beyond repair…
He takes all of that and weaves into us something gloriously beautiful, forgiven, redeemed, loved and valued! 

Do you have a story? Of course you do! If you have lived for long in this broken, fallen world you have a story!  

But what is the point of sharing our story if we are still walking in our broken state?  The enemy of your souls wants to destroy each and every one of us. He spends his time wreaking havoc in our lives…tempting us to do the very things that will wreck our souls and break our spirits. But we don't have to allow him the victory over our lives!!


We have only to accept the work that Jesus did on the cross…that act of redemption in 'buying back' our very heart, soul, and spirit…covering the sin in our lives with His life's blood so that we could be forgiven and restored not to religion, but to a very real and intimate relationship with God and to a life of real and lasting joy. We have only to surrender ourselves into His hands, and trust that the process, this healing journey that He is taking us through, is for our own good and His glory. 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  ~Romans 8:28

I hope that you understand what that relationship has the power to do in your life.  I want to talk a little about that in my next one or two posts. How His story intersects with our story, and how that makes it worth the telling…why it makes the telling a necessity. 

(Be sure to read the next article in this series: Story: The Conflict #3.  If you didn't catch part one of this series, you can read it here: Story…The Great Connector.)

You...your story? Redeemable! Are you walking in the redemption or are you holding back?

Story…The Great Connector

It seems that everywhere I turn lately people are grasping hold of the idea of telling your story.

Story…it seems to be the catchphrase of the day. Just google the word and you will see what I mean. There is a...

• magazine in Kentucky
• store in New York
• restaurant in Kansas City
• nightclub in Miami
• conference for creatives in Chicago
• seminar and a book by screenwriter Robert McKee
• band in the UK 
• scriptwriting software
• Disney family photo app for storytelling

All of which go by the name Story. And of course, who could forget Paul Harvey's, The Rest of the Story.  So you see there seems to be this almost obsession with the word, or rather the concept of…Story.

We all know that this concept of story is nothing new. Since the beginning of time, stories have existed. Stories have always been fascinating to the human race. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God(John 1:1-4).  Our creator, God, speaks to us through His Word using 'story' as one avenue to tell us many stories that bring understanding to our own stories, our own purpose, as it fits into the bigger Story. His Story.

The methods of telling our stories have changed through the years, but the fact remains that whether it be through the spoken word, the written word, or even on the big screen, we still have an innate desire to either hear or tell a good story. 

History is told through story. More than just a string of facts, it gives us a treasury of lessons learned and points us to a better way of living into the future. History gives us heroes to emulate...teaches us to dream big. It shows us that there is always something to be learned…even through failure. 

In East Of Eden, John Steinbeck puts it this way,

I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one…Humans are caught-in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too-in a net of good and evil…There is no other story.  

I believe that Mr. Steinbeck captured the essence of storytelling.  We are all in this epic adventure…one of the struggle between good and evil. We see ourselves in the stories told. We come to understand life...our own life...through the telling of those stories. We sympathize with the characters within the stories we hear, and especially through those that we ourselves tell. 

In one other quote from Steinbeck's book we read the musing of Adam Trask's servant, Lee: 

And, of course, people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. And I here make a rule-a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting-only the deeply personal and familiar.

While I am not sure that I am in complete agreement to that last quote, I do know that it is human nature to listen more intently when the story being told resonates within us. When there is something being told that we can relate to on a deep and personal level our ears perk up. We lean in and listen just a bit more intently as we connect in some way to the telling of a good tale…whether truth or fiction. 

I think Steinbeck hit the nail on the head when he said, "…a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last."  There is a great and lasting story…in HIS story, God's Word.  And yes…we are all a very important part of that story. 
It is the very promises within that great story that keep us going, that give us hope. 

One of my favorite modern day storytellers is Liz Curtis Higgs. She is especially good at the retelling of the stories of the women of the Bible. In talking about the story of Ruth, she tells us that the Hebrew word that opens the story, wayehi, is translated as, "In the days," or "And it came to pass." She says that this Hebrew word actually embodies so much more to those original Hebrew listeners. When they heard the word, wayehi , they would lean in eagerly so as not to miss a word, because it literally meant, "Trouble is on the horizon but redemption is coming."  

Trouble is on the horizon but redemption is coming! Isn't that just the essence of a really good story?  We want to hear what that trouble will be and we can endure the telling because we know that redemption is coming…things will be set right once again, by something or someone! And because we know there is something good to come of the bad, we eagerly lean in to hear the tale…the story.

STORY…what comes to your mind when you hear the word? Do you love a certain kind of story because it represents your own 'happily ever after'?  

I hope you'll come back to visit next week as I continue to delve into this word…this concept…to hear, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story. 

Come back and be ready to lean in! {Story part 2…Redeemables}

..."The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim. ~Romans 10:8

 If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy one I wrote in the topic of Story for a Five Minute Friday post here: Five Minute Friday: Story, or as Paul Harvey would say, "the rest of the story…" 

Or here:   Hope Awaits: A Story Yet To Be Unfold