Tell me a Story

I spent last Friday teaching middle school students at a school in our neighborhood.  I spend every other Friday at the school as part of the Student Advancement Leadership Initiative (SALI) program of LINC North Texas.  It's a great program and we teach values and leadership skills to students as part of the AVID curriculum.  AVID identifies students who have the potential to go to college but because of family situation or economics probably wouldn't.  They are typical middle school students: high energy and short attention span.  While there are few discipline problems, keeping their attention can be a challenge.  I have discovered that one of the best ways to relate the lesson to real life is through stories.  Some are fictional, others based on my experience.  I know I am being effective when one of the first questions the students ask when they see me in the classroom is, "Are you going to tell us another story."  Our stories do have power, and I have ability to capture the interest of the listener.  In the process they are drawn into my world and begin to relate to who I am. 

I recall an incident when our own daughter when she was in middle school.  Katie had been given the assignment to interview someone who had experienced history.  It was over a vacation break and we happened to be traveling to Michigan to see family.  That included time with my grandmother, who was approaching a hundred years of age at that time.  I suggested to Katie that she spend time with great grandma.  One question in the assignment intrigued both of us: what is the greatest invention in your life time.  We had speculated on possible answers: television, the telephone, the refrigerator.  Her response surprised us, "Electricity."  She went on to tell stories about growing up in a time when you had to rely on oil lamps for light.  She talked about having to help her mom fill the lamps with oil and then making sure the wicks were trimmed.  As night set in she would use a candle, lit from the fire in the stove, to light each of the lamps.  She also related that there were no church activities at night, because of the lack of light.  For that reason much of the religious training happened at home around the fireplace.

We all have stories to tell.  Some of those are stories of faith.  Our stories help other people relate to who we are, but also encourage them to develop stories of their own.  Many of those stories involve how God relates to our lives, and how we live out the hope we have in Jesus.  Find a young person  and share your story.  That requires earning the right to be heard.  Just, be Jesus and share your faith story with them.