The Stories of June

   There's nothing I love better than a well-told story. Seriously nothing. And June has been filled with them. True stories shared over coffee and Tres Leches French toast. True stories lived...like the one where my baby boy got his driver's permit, the one where Dan and I hosted a church in our house, which then meant that I got to tell this living room congregation stories about Jesus and the Good Samaritan, and Mother Teresa, and Desmond Doss and Reverend James Reev. Oh...and the Very Hungry Caterpillar. It's what we do now.

    For the last two weeks Moses has been rehearsing the story of Matilda with other kids his age in drama camp. I bought a school uniform for the first time because he needs it to play one of the revolting children tomorrow night (Friday). Not only has he been able to stay connected with two of his friends from school through this, but the daughter of a friend I met in preschool and shared most of my childhood spending time with is in the play. And so is the daughter of Dan's best friend growing up. How magical is this?

    I've been devouring the stories found in paper and audio books, like a ravenous bear. It's like I just can't get enough of them. The two that have stuck with me the most have been Patron Saint of Nothing, a young adult novel about the war on drugs in the Philippines that has led to the cover up of enormous injustices. And the other, I'd been waiting for for months, Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. Daniel came to America as a young age as a political refuge from Iran, after his mother converted to Christianity. What made this especially interesting was that I had read his sister's version of their life story about a year ago, and I found them both similar and different. Daniel shows enormous respect for the faith of his mother which caused her to give up a life that had once treated her well for the sake of "the God who doesn't just speak, but also listens." His story made me think a lot. Sometimes in my life I've only known the God who speaks. And sometimes in my life I've only been able to trust that God listens. I too found a respect for Daniel's mother, who knew God as both.

    There's been the stories that were converted into documentaries, that as someone who loves God and his Church, were extremely hard to watch. The story of Hillsong, and Shiny, Happy, People maybe just hit too close to home. I want to say they've been slandered and misrepresented. But I have lived in close enough proximity to the issues both address...the church growth movement, and Bill Gothard's Institute in Basic Life Principles...to know that much of the accusations were pretty accurate. And it gave me a sick feeling in my stomach. Not because I am against people fervently following their convictions in living their life in a way that they believe pleases God. Not because I am against churches growing and reaching large numbers of people with the gospel. It's not that. It's the way power corrupts. It's about how intoxicating a room of people hanging on our every word can be. And it's that everything I heard in both these groups had a lot more to do with what we can or should do and not a lot about what God has done...the God that Daniel Nayeri's mom recognized as the "God who speaks AND listens." I heard a lot about fear, and little about love. In their own ways both of these were extremely self-centered. I hated these stories. But I learned from these stories.

    I'm learning two different versions of the same story can both be true. I'm learning the role that trauma plays in that. I'm learning that the characters in our stories are usually more nuanced than we have believed, and that sometimes heroes act like villains, and sometimes villains act like heroes, and sometimes we just change. I'm learning that some seasons are for reading stories, and some are for living stories, and that I like both. 

    What kind of story are you living right now? I hope it's good! What's God teaching you through the stories you hear? Where is he speaking? Where is he listening?