Tell me a good story

Have you ever been through a season when your spiritual life felt dry? I have had two of these experiences that were particularly difficult. Thanks be to God, He did eventually walk me out of the dreadful desert land, but during the last experience I stumbled upon a practice that brought me great joy even while in the midst of it. This was the practice of reviewing my God stories.

I try to walk about an hour a day and I use two audio prayer apps (Lectio365 and Pray as You Go). Often one of the prayer prompts brings to mind something God has done in my life. During my last difficult season, instead of just praying about the memory in response to the prompt, I found myself stopping to remember the whole story. At first, I would just try to recall all the things God had done in the situation. Then, I would trace the story back to the very beginning, finding an “opening scene” of sorts. From there I would begin to narrate the story in my mind of God’s gracious, merciful, sometimes miraculous, but always providential interventions. This wasn’t just recalling what happened; I literally crafted the story as if I were writing an autobiography to sell to a movie studio. I went over every section more than once trying to find just the right language to express what had happened accurately and vibrantly to give God the glory He deserves.

You know, like when you are dreading a confrontation so you rehearse the conversation several different ways in your head before it happens. Well, this was like that except those mental conversations often lead to anxiety or fuel anger, but I found this exercise filled me with joy, appreciation, and faith. Especially when I got to the end. That is where I would mentally identify every effect that God’s breaking in had on my life and the lives of others - our Lord is the great Multitasker!

Though my faith was ebbing in that season, this practice reminded me that God had been working throughout those situations and there was no reason to believe He was not still at work, even if I couldn’t perceive it on this particular stretch of my journey.

Dear friend, I pray you never have a season of spiritual dryness, but if you do, you may want to try rehearsing your God stories day after day crafting them into the perfect chronicle. Then, be on the lookout…for you never know when God will bring someone across your path that is need of a good story.