Spiritual Solutions

Just those four words, “Tell me a story!” were the hallmark of the relationship of TV producer Don Hewitt to his team of journalists on 60 minutes. Don Hewitt died recently after thirty-six years as the producer of the weekly TV program, 60 minutes. On Sunday evening the whole 60-minutes program was devoted to the memory of Don Hewitt and the journalistic responses to his passionate request for them to “Tell me a story!”

Those words rang a bell in my heart as being a powerful reminder of the tremendous impact that stories have on our lives. Jesus, of course, was the master story-teller and his parables and life story continue to inspire and bless our lives, as do the many, many stories found in both the “Old Testament” Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.

I am mindful, too, that the stories of and about Jesus and the events surrounding him would most likely not have survived had they not been written down by the various writers. From the written word we also see different aspects of what may originally be the same event or situation but written from the perspective of the particular writer and for their different audiences. Thus we also receive the benefit of what was most meaningful to the individual writer and to those who have interpreted the stories in the years that followed.

Writing that just now triggers a memory of a dear minister friend who was an inveterate story-teller and who was fond of saying laughingly about himself, “Never let the facts spoil a good story!” He said that in fun, but he was also saying that though the facts about something may be important, the story built around the facts was far more important in reaching people with a truth principle he wanted to get across.

Where would we be without stories? I remember listening with rapt attention to stories when I was a child and later as I grew into adulthood, especially whenever my grandmother, or my mother and father, or my favorite aunt would relate stories from their own lives. I also loved reading stories as a child and reading has sustained me and nourished me throughout my life.

Not only have I loved hearing and reading stories but I’ve loved telling stories, especially in my thirty-eight years of ministry. I love to tell funny stories and personal stories too, stories which may be filled with love and happiness or filled with heartache. I have found that we are able to touch one another’s hearts in a deep, soul-searching embrace through the stories of our lives we share with one another.

Sometimes when I am speaking to a group in a church service or a class, I find myself sharing a story which I hadn’t had any intention of sharing. It’s as though Spirit just pulls it out of me in that particular moment, and I have often found out later that the story touched someone’s heart in a special way. Or I am reminded of how meaningful the story still is to me when it brings me close to tears as I relate it, and if the story is one of personal loss or heartache it might also bring me closer to my own personal healing.

As I have developed my blog, Spiritual Solutions, I have discovered that writing my stories is every bit as meaningful as the vocal telling of my stories. And I am reminded of the words of Chris Cade, the developer of the Inscribe Your Life program, when he says in his guidebook to the program, “Only a few short years ago, I had never written a story; now I am guiding thousands of people worldwide to discover amazing truths about themselves through story writing. It happened to me, and it can happen to you just as easily if you open yourself to the infinite possibilities of your experience and existence.”

When I first learned about the Inscribe Your Life program, I became excited about its spiritual implications and I not only subscribed to the program but also signed up to be an affiliate in order to effectively tell others about the program and the spiritual impact it can have on an individual’s life. The program filled up rather quickly and I was disappointed when Chris Cade closed the doors to it after a relatively short time frame, even though he made that decision so as to serve the subscribers more personally and effectively.

However, I talked to Chris just this past week and he assured me that he would be opening the doors again in three to four weeks, and that meanwhile anyone interested in joining the program can go to the “Coming Soon” page which has a video preview of the program and a place for you to sign up for early notification of the coming open door. He has a lot more plans and things he is working on for the upcoming months, so you might want to sign up for information in order to stay in the loop.

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