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Never Too Old for Storytelling
A "FIRESTARTER"
Spiritual Essay by Rev. Dr. Benjamin Berinti, C.Pp.S.
As I tooled around the corner of the long hallway, with lots of people
scurrying about, and the level of noise reaching a fever pitch, the distinct
sounds of someone reading a story somehow pierced the clamor and pulled me in.
I stood at the doorway to the room and was immediately touched by the expressive
voice and face of the storyteller. Apparently, the listeners, for the most
part, were equally mesmerized and responded, each in their own, limited ways,
when asked a question about what they had just heard. “Does anyone here know
what a ‘daisy’ is? Can anybody remember picking flowers in a garden? Is it
hard to get dirt out from under your fingernails?” Not knowing the title of the
book being read aloud, but making a quick judgment from the questions being
posed, I assumed it was a child’s tale about gardening, or perhaps some metaphor
for “growing up”.
The storyteller sat in the middle of the crowd, with book opened and
propped to her side, as she made sure to show the extravagant pictures that some
marvelous illustrator had created for the text.
As is always the case when it comes to storytelling, not all the
listeners were able to follow along or respond to the storyteller—some where
drifting away in their own worlds, with their own “stories” being played out;
some were more concerned about the streamers hanging from the ceiling or the
location of their chairs. But for the most part, many mouths were opened in
broad smiles, and there were twinkling eyes scattered throughout the room.
A beautiful sight (and sound) indeed…but it did not take place where you
first think it may have. I wasn’t careening through the hallways of a
neighborhood daycare or elementary school. No, I was on my way back to the
office after having anointed a dying patient at a local nursing home.
You see, no matter our age or condition, we are never too old for
stories!
John Shea, a masterful storyteller himself, tells us why:
Humankind is addicted to stories. No matter our mood, in reverie or
expectation, panic or peace, we can be found stringing together incidents, and
unfolding episodes. We tell our stories to live (Stories of God, 7-8).
But we human beings are not the only ones who love to fashion our lives
through stories—so does our Creator God! And, as John Shea points out,
God not only loves to hear our stories, he loves to tell his own. And, quite
simply, we are the story God tells. Our very lives are the words that come from
his mouth (Stories, 8).
Perhaps, like so many things in the course of our lives, we think we
outgrow stories and storytelling. We exchange our creative and imaginative
abilities to fashion intriguing and captivating stories for the ability to state
the facts, or measure the truth, or “tell it like it really is.” Yet, if we are
at heart storytellers, created by a story-filled God, then we deprive ourselves
of one of the greatest gifts God renders us. Made in the image and likeness of
our gracious and imaginative Storytelling God, we too must shape and fashion the
incidents and episodes of our lives in such a way that the true “author” of our
stories can be made known and experienced through us.
Perhaps we hide from telling our stories because we don’t like the
content of them. In some ways, we may be trying now, or have tried at some time
in our life, to rewrite our story, or at least to shift a few things around in
it so that it comes out better, or at least more palatable. Yet, our triumphs
and tragedies, our successes and failures, our adventures and misguided
foolishness—all are pieces of the great narrative that is the story of each of
our lives. We may try to edit and rewrite our tales; we may try to draw nice
pictures to soften the painful words that tell of broken hearts and promises; we
may even try to leave out parts—but the full story of our lives can never be
fully suppressed. The story of our lives always seems to have its own way of
seeping out through the cracks that quite naturally develop over a lifetime.
Perhaps we shy from telling our story because we believe that no one
would understand. Almost every person who writes, whether for a living or
simply for personal pleasure, will most surely admit that one of the most
difficult things about putting one’s thoughts out there to read is the danger
and fear that no one will want to read it! Why tell my story? Who
cares?
But we are not alone in our stories, for as Christians, we are wrapped
up in the eternal drama of our Storytelling God, who most beautifully brought
God’s story to life in the person of Jesus the Christ! As followers of the Lord
Jesus, his story becomes our story—we try to locate ourselves in the twists and
turns of his life, death and resurrection. This is what the Easter season is
all about!
It is not by accident or coincidence that on the road to Emmaus, as the
disheartened disciples tell their story of tragedy and defeat to the unknown
stranger who draws near to accompany them, the stranger first opens up the
Scriptures, the Stories of God before revealing his true identity. Jesus takes
their seemingly lonely and disconnected tale and joins it with his story and the
great story of God’s desires for creation. Jesus gives flesh to something Isaak
Dinesen once remarked: “Any sorrow can be borne if a story can be told about
it.”
Suddenly, these two aimless and dejected
disciples, who had “hoped that Jesus was the one who would save Israel,”
feel their hearts burning and hungering. They are no longer alone in their
misery—but are now gathered up into the heart of God through Jesus the Risen
Lord, who breaks the bread for them, so they might have the strength to go on
and to create more stories with their lives through what they have witnessed.
And this is exactly what they do! Not content with merely “hearing” a
great story, they break out from Emmaus and return to the city to proclaim good
news—to reopen the story they thought had come to an end.
We are never too old or too young to hear and to tell stories. After
all, our Christian faith and way of life depend upon it! Have any good stories
to tell?
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