I just read an article in yesterday’s USA Today about Christians who continue to tithe even in the face of financial troubles and even foreclosure.
I’m interested in your thoughts. Should Christians tithe to begin with? Should Christians continue to tithe if they find themselves in financial trouble?
Julie wrote in yesterday to say something really interesting. She said that a story is more appropriate than a resume “when the person asking for information wants to know about who you are rather than what you can do.”
Reminds me of something my wife said the other night. She said, “You send a resume when you want to impress someone. You tell a story if you want a relationship.”
Mike said, “I can instantly forget a resume. A good story I’ll remember for a lifetime.”
Isn’t it interesting, then, that when you read the Bible you don’t find God’s resume or CV. You find a story — a whopping good story at that.
Why do you suppose that is?
Sometimes when someone wants to learn more about us, we send them a resume.
Sometimes we tell them a story.
When is a story more appropriate than a resume?
Trouble.
Change.
Relatability.
These are all elements of a really good story. They’re probably elements of your story. I bet you’ve experienced some trouble in your life. If you haven’t, hold on…you will.
I also bet you’re not that different from me. You’ve got some relationships in your life that are important. Sometimes those relationships aren’t very easy to manage and maintain. You’ve probably got a desire to do work that matters in the long run. Maybe you’re concerned about your finances. Maybe you’re concerned about your waistline. Maybe you wish things were a little different than they currently are. Your story and mine may differ in the details, but I bet many of the broad strokes are similar.
And I bet you’ve changed some over the course of your story. I’m 20 years removed from high school graduation, and I bear very little resemblance to that 18-year-old arrogant guy wearing that red cap and gown from Greater Atlanta Christian School. I’ve certainly changed. You probably have, too.
Everybody has a story. And most of our stories contain many of the same themes. Each of our stories has a starting point. Each of our stories will contain lots of turning points. Each of our stories will one day end. We’re all somewhere in the middle of all that right now.
I wonder, however, if you’ve ever considered the role God may be playing in your story.
How would you describe God’s part of your story?
Friday night we had a group of people in our new home. I made two pots of chili (one vegetarian and one full of meat). We ate. We talked. We laughed. We got to know one another.
And, to do that last bit, we told a lot of stories.
Isn’t it interesting that, when we want to learn more about new people, we don’t ask them for a resume? Instead, we sit and listen as they tell us stories — stories about their childhood, about their college days, about their marriage, about their children, about when their father died or when they lost that baby, about how they got that house or what brought them here when they grew up way over there.
John Steinbeck said, “We are lonesome animals. We spend all our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say — and to feel — Yes, that’s the way it is, or at least that’s the way I feel it.”
For all of the stories we tell, all of the episodes of our lives we gather up and share, we know that each piece comes together somehow to form a larger narrative: The Story of Our Life. Who we are today is — to some extent — a result of how all those smaller stories fit together and shape the way we think, feel and act. We know this, but few of us take the time to think of life as a story.
This is what we’re talking about on Friday nights at our house these days. And this is what I’d like to discuss here for the next little bit.
To begin, let’s wrestle with this question: What makes a good story?
Just wanted to remind you that I’m offering free copies of my latest book, The 52 Greatest Stories of the Bible, for people who will do one of two things:
1. Take a picture of yourself with the book and email it to info@52greateststories.com. Here’s an example from my friend Andy Sikora:
2. Write a review of the book on Amazon.com.
Do one of those two things, and I’ll make sure the person of your choice gets a free copy of the book for Christmas.
Here’s a question for you to help me with: What sort of prize should I give to someone who does both of those things?
Earlier this summer (I can still say that for a few more days, right?) I was honored to be the keynote speaker at Redwood Christian Park’s June Family Camp. I did a series called “ReBoot” — about re-examining what we really believe so we can make better decisions that might lead to a better life. I also taught a workshop based on the materials in my book Hearts and Minds: Raising Your Child with a Christian View of the World. Oh, and my good friend Dr. Lawson Stone did a series of lectures based on his research into the books of Joshua and Judges. His teaching was great.
They’ve just posted the audio on their website.
Eventually, I’ll get some of these audio files titled and uploaded to this website, but until then you can grab them here.
The other day I was feeling all out of sorts. I can’t imagine why! It’s not like I’ve packed up my house, moved my family across the country and started a new job with a new church in a new community.
Oh, wait. It’s exactly like that.
So, I was feeling…I don’t know…discombobulated. And it occurred to me that I hadn’t spent any time reading the Bible at all in nearly two weeks. That’s strange for any Christian, but for a professional Christian like me it’s even stranger. Normally, I spend a little time each morning reading through one of the Gospels (I’m doing Luke right now — I just finished up the story about the Rich Man & Lazarus). I also preach regularly, and I spend a fair amount of time nosing around the text when I’m preparing for a sermon.
But I haven’t preached in a few weeks. And everything got packed up when we left. Somehow all our Bibles got put in one box, and that one box seemed to get set at the very bottom of all the other boxes. I must own two dozen different Bibles. KJV. NASB. NIV. TNIV. RSV. NRSV. NLT. CEV. ESV. Amplified. The Message. Greek. Study Bibles. Plain Bibles. Leather-bound. Hardback. Paperback. Every one of them out of reach.
To make matters more complicated, I had no internet access.
All of that added up to me not spending any time reading the Bible in several days, and I was actually feeling it.
So, I had the very happy “accident” of finding one while I was unpacking a box of clothes and shoes in the master bedroom yesterday. It’s a small, camouflage NIV that was given to me by one of my very best friends while he was in the Army. He and I had been in a small group where we studied about spiritual warfare, and when he got to bootcamp and saw this particular Bible in the PX, he thought it an appropriate gift for me.
I can’t remember the last time I was so glad to see a Bible. And it reminded me that there actually is a war going on. It made me think that perhaps I was feeling more than just blue or “in a funk” — perhaps I was actually engaged in some sort of spiritual attack. Instantly, I thought of the verse that says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you” (James 4:7b-8a).
So, I sat there on the edge of the bed and read the entire Book of James. When I was done I prayed a prayer of gratitude for God, God’s Word and the comfort it is. And I prayed a prayer of thanks for my friend Steven Allen and the Bible he gave me all those years ago.
