“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 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
No comments:
Post a Comment