Your memoir might take up “residence in someone's soul” and become “their blood and self and purpose”

 

Do you recognize the opportunity you have—as well as the responsibility—to write your stories? Maybe right now you can’t imagine how God can use them to bless your readers—your kids, grandkids, and great-grands, friends, even strangers. But keep reading. . . .

 

Your stories are important. Writing them is more than a hobby—it is a ministry.

 

You and I are just ordinary people living ordinary lives, yet God is acting on our behalf every moment of every day.

 

Take time to observe what He is doing.

 

Notice the ways Bible passages come alive—how they come true, how they are relevant—in your family.

 

Remember our theme verse here at SM 101:

 

“Always remember what you’ve seen God do for you,

and be sure to tell your children and grandchildren!”

(Deuteronomy 4:9)

 

If you’ll put your stories into writing, you’ll be doing what Deuteronomy 4:9 urges all of us to do.

 

You have stories only you can tell.

“Someone needs to tell those tales. . . . For each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.” (Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus)

Read Morgenstern's words again:

“You may tell a tale 

that takes up residence in someone's soul, 

becomes their blood and self and purpose. 

That tale will move them and drive them 

and who knows what they might do 

because of it, because of your words. 

That is your role, your gift.”

 

You are part of a story much bigger than yourself. Your story is part of God’s story and God’s story is part of your story.

 

Invest time and effort into connecting your stories with God’s stories. Don’t keep them to yourself—give them to others to read!

 

“We’ll tell our children what we’ve known

and what our ancestors handed down to us.

We won’t keep these stories to ourselves.

We’ll tell the next generation about God’s marvelous deeds.”

(Psalm 78:3-4)

 

 

Your brokenness can be the stuff of turning points and second chances for others

 

Devastating situations can knock the air out of us. Bring us to our knees.

 

Sometimes we cause our own tragedies, other times we’re innocent victims of someone else’s choices and actions. And often heartbreaks are part of life for everyone—like the death of a loved one.

 

Sometimes we are so broken, so helpless, we can’t do anything but fling ourselves into God’s arms and hold on.

 

And later—often much later—

we discover that within that place of crisis,

we learn our most important lessons—

 

• Sorrows can wrench us out of places we should never have wandered.
• Anguish can break down our stubbornness and make us willing, finally, to embrace a holy discontent with things that are not right in our lives.
• A crisis can force us to get serious about God and His forgiveness and grace—and about our need to forgive and extend grace to others.
• Devastation can shake us by the shoulders and convince us that God is worthy of all we are and all we have—that He is Number One.

 

In that way, our brokenness

can lead to our wholeness:

Heartbreaks can be the stuff of turning points

and second chances.

Personal disasters can lead to personal victories.

 

Some of you have been there. You messed up. Or maybe someone else messed up and left you devastated. Shattered. But you survived. Your broken self healed—by God’s grace. You’re living in a new chapter of your life.

 

• God has given you a new song to sing. (Psalm 40:1-3).
• He has given you beauty in place of ashes, gladness in place of mourning (Isaiah 61:3).
• He has restored places long devastated (Isaiah 61:4).
• He has turned your weeping into songs of joy (Psalm 126:5-6).

 

Write your story!

Someone needs to hear

that you got through your disaster.

 

Someone needs to know

that you are living a new and better life.

 

Not just that you got a new life—

but how you got there.

How did you and God, together,

get you to this new place?

 

Someone, sometime, will read your memoir—someone searching for answers, someone reeling in the midst of his or her own anguish, longing to turn a corner, desperate to receive a second chance, eager to leave the former life behind and make a fresh start. God can use your story to help answer their prayers, give them hope, and someone (you, through your memoir) to walk alongside them toward the other side.

 

In that way, you—just an ordinary person—can be a “messenger of the Most High.”

 

Take in the following:

 

“And so we understand that ordinary people are messengers of the Most High,” writes Lawrence Kushner. “They go about their tasks in holy anonymity. Often, even unknown to themselves. Yet, if they had not been there, if they had not said what they said or did what they did, it would not be the way it is now. We would not be the way we are now. Never forget that you, too, may be a messenger. Perhaps even one whose errand extends over several lifetimes.” (Eyes Remade for Wonder, Lawrence Kushner)

 

Read those last two sentences again with your memoir in mind:

 

“Never forget that you, too,

may be a messenger.

Perhaps even one whose errand

extends over several lifetimes.”

 

How can your stories extend over several lifetimes? By putting them in writing, making copies, and making sure your family knows they have copies—on a shelf somewhere, or in a box in the basement. They might not read your memoir in your lifetime, but someday, someone will read it.

 

Trust God—

He has given you a high calling.

 

Your stories matter.

 

Not so much because of who you are,

but because of who God is.

 

Commit your stories to Him,

believing He will use them to bless your readers.

 

“Your struggle to share your struggle changes the world.”

Mick Silva, Higher Purpose Writers

 

You might think you live an unremarkable life, but God has been writing His sacred stories through you and your family

 

“Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred stories of the ordinary.”

 

Those words zing me, those “Aha!” words penned by Lawrence Kushner.

 

I marvel at those words combined that way. They stretch my awareness of God and of life—and of myself and my family.

 

I applaud their meaning.

 

Those words capture the purpose—the heart—of our memoirs.

 

Writing a memoir includes looking back, sorting out, mulling, unraveling, looking for deeper meanings and patterns and threads.

 

In doing so, you discover that from one generation to the next to the next, God arranges “invisible lines of connection.” In your everyday moments, He writes “sacred stories of the ordinary.”

 

“Reverence before heaven. Amazing grace,” Kushner writes. “It is a way of understanding your place within Creation. . . . When viewed from a point of high enough vantage, everything is revealed to be in the hands of God. . . . (Invisible Lines of Connection: Sacred Stories of the Ordinary; emphasis mine). 

 

God’s presence and His holy, invisible, connecting lines in your life have been there all along, since before your birth.

 

Try to take this in: God includes you in His sacred stories that span the centuries.

 

“You are a story,” writes Dan Allender. “You are not merely the possessor and teller of a number of stores; you are a well-written, intentional story that is authored by the greatest Writer of all time, and even before time and after time.

 

“The weight of these words,” Allender continues, “. . . will call you to a level of coauthorship that is staggering in its scope and meaning” (To Be Told).

 

You are part of God’s divine story.

 

You began with a plan God wrote:

 

“For I know the plans I have for you,”

says the Lord.

“They are plans for good and not for disaster,

to give you a future and a hope”

(Jeremiah 29:11, NLT).

 

“The Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore” (Psalm 121:8, NIV).

 

You discover sacred stories of the ordinary, Kushner says, “just beneath the surface. . . .”

 

You might think you live an inconspicuous,

unremarkable life but,

through the generations,

God has been writing His sacred stories

through you and your family’s ordinary events.

 

Search for ways God has watched over

your ancestors’ coming and going

because through those people and events

God was preparing for, and then shaping, you.

 

The beginning of our story on earth “seldom coincides with our birth. Our story begins,” says Allender, “with the characters who gave us birth, including their past relationships with their parents and issues such as success and shame; power and abuse; love, loss, and addiction; heartache and secrets. . . .  We owe our existence to the generations that came before us. Our beginning, which took place before we were born, signals some of the themes that will play out in our life.”

 

So then, track sacred connections around you.

 

Ask God to give you glimpses of His hand-written, just-beneath-the-surface stories.

 

And then ponder this: 

 

You are the bridge God has placed

between your family’s generations past

and generations yet to come.

 

Your stories matter.

 

Your stories can make a difference.

 

Stories guide, inspire, encourage, influence,

motivate, and empower.

 

Stories heal.

 

Stories shape lives.

 

Your stories can help mold the lives of children, nieces,

nephews, grandchildren, and generations yet unborn.

 

“Sometimes a particular story, or version of a story, is so potent,” says Ayd Instone, and “becomes so interwoven in our lives that it defines the direction our life story takes and modifies behavior. . . . ” 

 

Write your stories for generations yet to come.

 

“Write what should not be forgotten.”

Isabel Allende

 

Does your opening make your memoir a must-read?

 

In writing your memoir, you must craft every aspect well, but your beginning could make or break your entire book.

 

Because of that, you’ll need to create curiosity, draw readers in, and keep them reading.

 

An opening is probably the hardest for all of us to create, whether we’re composing a book, vignette, newspaper or magazine article, blog post, inspirational talk, or sermon.

 

Brian Clark drives home that point:

 

“Master copywriter Gene Schwartz

often spent an entire week on the first 50 words. . . .

Those 50 words are the most important part

of any persuasive writing,

and writing them takes time.

Even for the masters.”

 

Read that again: “ . . . writing them takes time. Even for the masters.”

 

How are you doing on crafting your memoir’s beginning?

 

Here are a few tips:

 

Remove your scaffolding. (Don’t miss that link!) Your first few paragraphs must be the correct ones.

 

Be sure your beginning doesn’t give away the ending. This might seem like a no-brainer, but too many people goof on that.

 

Prolific author and New York Times bestselling author Cecil Murphey says, “I once read more than one hundred of the entries for Christmas Miracles, a compilation book. The major flaw in at least a third of them was that they told us the ending before they told us the story.” Cecil gave this example: “The worst Christmas of my life became the best Christmas ever.”

 

Instead of giving away the ending, intrigue your readers: Entice them to keep reading so they’ll discover how your memoir ends.

 

When I teach memoir classes, I encourage people to do what I did when I was a journalism student (and still do today): Study openings written by pros.

 

Be an eager student: Go to the library, or browse around a book store, or look through your own stack of books, or look inside memoirs on Amazon—but only those written by pros. Study how they do it.

 

Scrutinize the start of everything you come across—newspaper articles, magazine articles, literary journals, fiction—anything written by pros, and study how they do it.

 

Once you’ve acquainted yourself with professionally composed openings, look at how non-pros write them. 

 

By studying beginnings penned by 

both pros and beginners, 

you’ll recognize what works 

and what doesn’t. 

And you’ll become more skilled 

at creating your own memoir’s opening.

 

Remember: Plan to take plenty of time to create just the right beginning.

 

The first part of your memoir can make or break the whole book.

 

An effective start can motivate a person 

to keep reading,

but a weak one could persuade him 

to close your memoir and walk away.

 

Put in the hard work needed to make your opening zing.

 

Does your memoir’s beginning pass the test?

 

After you’ve worked a while on your memoir, take another look at its opening. Because you’ve focused on other parts of your story for a while, you can now take a fresh look at its beginning.

 

Ask yourself:

 

• Will it grab my readers?
• Will it surprise them?
• Stir up curiosity?
• Make them laugh? Or make them cry?
• Will it intrigue them? Charm them?
• Will it motivate them to keep reading?

 

If not, rewrite your beginning.

 

And please don’t feel bad about that.

Everyone reworks their stories’ beginnings.

Everyone!

 

Stay tuned.

 Next week, we’ll take an in-depth look

at how to craft a good beginning.