This may be a biased opinion coming from a former journalism/film student, but I think stories bring hope in a way that few things could challenge.  The fact that everyone has a story is, or at least can be, a unifying factor, presenting the chance for people from every background to partake in a greater appreciation for humanity, life, individual challenges and victories at every level.  To hear someone else's story is to be invited into something bigger than yourself.   Listening presents the chance to be changed into something more than what you were before being invited into a portion of the mystery of another's life.  What an honor.

Which makes me wonder how high the stakes are in the pursuit of an authentic, genuine life.  A listening life.  A fully engaged life.  It seems logical to me that if a story holds in it the potential of being a transforming agent to those who observe it, who are welcomed into it, there must be serious obstacles to living from the heart in a way that is fully present and wide awake.

It takes courage to tell your story, which to me, really means that it takes courage to live it well.   It takes courage to stay engaged, especially in the times of dullness, where it would be so much easier to surrender to the numbing effect of routine instead of allowing even what is mediocre to transform and inspire.

"It's like I'm living for the first time..."

For the past few days,  I've been listening to the newest worship album released from Bethel Church in Redding, California titled The Loft Sessions.  It's so good (and good is defined here as "you don't want the songs to ever come to an end, and when they do, you put it on repeat without realizing that you've been listening to the same songs for hours because they took you into such a lovely place with Jesus"), and I encourage everyone to check it out!  

A prayer from Windows of the Soul

Help me, God,

To realize it is in being crippled that I learn to cling, and in limping that I learn to lean,
that victory comes not in how courageously I struggle
but in how completely I surrender,
and that this is how I am to grow,
by being defeated,
decisively,
by constantly greater things.
Help me to understand that Your power is perfected in weakness,
so that when I am rendered weak,
You are giving the opportunity to be shown strong.
Help me to understand, too,
that "more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of,
for so the whole round earth is every way
bound in gold chains about the feet of God..."

Prisoner of Hope

"Return to the stronghold, You prisoneres of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you." -Zechariah 9:12

Jesus is a battle-fighter...and His victory is guaranteed.

how often

is there more to the story than what meets the eye?

"...sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness."

-Galway Kinnell
"Saint Francis and the Sow"

creating a space