You? Write a book? What makes you so special?

You are important to God.

Your stories are important to God and your family.

So you’ve decided to write your memoir—but you hear nagging little whispers.

“Who do you think you are?”

“You? Write a book? What makes you so special?”

You might ask, “Who am I, that I should write such stories? I’m not a Moses, or a David, or a Paul, or an Abraham….”

But wait! Moses got so mad he killed an Egyptian and ran away and hid in the desert for 40 years.

And later, when God said He was sending Moses to Pharoah to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses made all kinds of excuses and balked and wailed, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it” (Exodus 4:13).

Here’s the important point: It’s not that Moses was so great—it’s what God did: He enabled Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into the land of milk and honey—and so much more.

Then there’s David, and Paul. It’s easy to think of them as saints, but they really messed up sometimes. Their lives were a mixture of faith and willful disobedience, spiritual success and failures, yet God used them in mighty ways and continues to do so today. It’s not so much what David or Paul did, but what God did.

“Abraham is…one of the most important men in the history of the world,” writes Richard Peace. “What makes him so important … is not his sterling character (which he did not have), his outstanding intellect (which may have existed but it is not mentioned), his charming personality (he could be pretty annoying) or substantial personal accomplishments (he has few, apart from his pilgrimage to the promised land). What Abraham is remembered for is his faithfulness in obeying God’s call to undertake a long and demanding journey. It was not so much what Abraham did, but what God did…. In Abraham we see not so much a saint in action; rather, the faithfulness and graciousness of God…. In Abraham we see an ordinary man who is used by God, not because of who Abraham was, but because of who God is….” (Richard Peace, Spiritual Storytelling)

So…. How does that make you feel? Can you see yourself as an ordinary person used by God?

Bottom line: Write your stories—not because of who you are, but because of who God is.

It’s not that we think

we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves.

Our only power and success come from God.

2 Corinthians 3:5, NLT

…Our adequacy is from God…. Therefore, having such a hope,

we use great boldness in our speech [and writing]….

2 Corinthians 3:5, 12, NAS

Write your stories!

Depend on God to make you adequate for this awesome task.

Use heavenly boldness in your writing.

Your stories can help readers

become all God created them to be.

Does your memoir capture God in your everydayness?

Jesus said, “Go tell your family everything God has done for you” (Luke 8:39). That’s what writing a memoir is about!

That doesn’t mean you have to write about only God. That doesn’t mean you must write His name on every page, or even in every chapter.

But your job as a memoirist is, first, to recognize and know that God was involved in all you experienced and, second, to  explain that to your readers, especially in the end, in your grand finale.

But, you might be saying, I’ve lived such a mundane life—just a normal, commonplace life. Nothing noteworthy has happened to me or my family.

If that’s the way you see your life, wait! Ponder Heschel’s words in I Asked For Wonder:

And isn’t Heschel correct? The Bible is full of stories

about God’s involvement in everyday trivialities.

And God has been involved in your ordinary, unremarkable days. 

Don’t doubt it!

Think about young David,

year after year herding his sheep,

living a quiet, apparently insignificant life.

Yet God joined with him there

and taught him

and prepared him for his future

and inspired him to write those precious Psalms.

(How much poorer our lives would be

without those shepherd-boy’s writings!)

Your job is to peel back layers and dig for those gems—God-things that were happening, which perhaps you didn’t recognize at the time—and when you discover them, you will be full of wonder!

So, write your stories. They are important—if they weren’t, we wouldn’t find instructions in both Old and New Testaments to tell our children and grandchildren what we’ve seen God do for us. Writing your memoir is not a hobby—it’s a ministry!

Keep plugging away. Eventually you’ll finish your collection of vignettes and you can publish your memoir. When you do, you’ll have done what Jesus said—you’ll have told your family what God has done for you and for them.

When you do that, be sure to let us know here at SM 101. 

(On Tuesday, Linda Moore Kurth left a comment 

on her almost-complete memoir. 

Congratulations, Linda! 

How about the rest of you? 

How much of your memoir have you finished? 

We'd love to hear from you!)

Your stories: An act of worship

Have you read 1 Chronicles 16 lately? If not, take a few minutes to read it below—you’ll be glad you did!

Notice how you can almost hear trumpets sounding and bells ringing and angels singing.

In this chapter, David gave Asaph and his fellow Levites a song of thanksgiving to God. He said:

Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name;

make known…what he has done.

Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts….

Remember the wonders he has done….

Declare his glory...his marvelous deeds….

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise….

Splendor and majesty are before him;

strength and joy in his dwelling place.

Ascribe to the Lord...the glory due his name.

Bring an offering before him;

worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness....

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

his love endures forever.

                                                                          

And when David finished, “Then all the people shouted ‘Amen’ and ‘Praise the Lord.’” What a worship service! I wish I could have stood among that congregation.

And as if that’s not enough—what’s even more exciting

is that we are doing the same things in our memoirs! 

In our stories,

we are telling others the wonders God has done

and his marvelous deeds on our behalf.

In our memoir stories, we are declaring his glory.

In the process, we are “singing” praise to him,

“Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise!”

One sentence grabbed hold of my heart: “Bring an offering before him; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.”

I encourage you to lift up to God (1) your process of writing and (2) your finished stories—lift them up to God as your offering to him.

And hand your stories to your readers as an offering to the Lord, too. Do it as an act of worshiping him in the splendor of his holiness. What a privilege we have to honor God in this way.

And we, the writers, together with our readers, 

shout, Amen! And Praise the Lord!

Your story could make all the difference

What have you been afraid of in the past? What are you afraid of now?

Consider writing a vignette for your memoir about how you cope with fear. How can you inspire your readers to be courageous?

Here are words to get your thoughts going:

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence

by every experience

in which you really stop

to look fear in the face.

You must do the thing

which you think you cannot do.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—

not absence of fear.”

Mark Twain

“We are all brave men and we are all afraid,

and what the world calls a brave man,

he too is brave and afraid

like all the rest of us.

Only he is brave for five minutes longer.”

Alistair MacLean, Scottish novelist

“I will never leave you or forsake you.

Be strong and courageous...”

God (Joshua 1:5-6)

“Be strong and very courageous.”

God (Joshua 1:7)

“Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged,

for the Lord your God will be with you

wherever you go.”

God (Joshua 1:9)

“Only be strong and courageous.”

God (Joshua 1:18)

I suspect that most, if not all, people have a problem with fear, and in light of that, I marvel at what a kind, comforting God we have: He has given us hundreds of Bible verses to help us deal with fear.

Many years ago, I heard that there are 366 Bible verses telling us, in one way or another, "Fear not." That means God has given us one verse for every day, even in leap year!

He longs for us to replace fear with courage, faith-based courage.

Maybe there was a time when you had courage to do nothing more than pray. And that’s okay!  (See 1 Chronicles 17:25 in which King David found courage to pray.) I suspect prayer is the very place each of us should start!

Your story about wrestling with fear—

and triumphing over it (maybe only sometimes)—

is important.

Someone needs to know your story,

someone facing fear,

someone who will deal with fear in the future,

someone who can’t quite take a leap

and do the courageous thing.

Your story can quiet fears.

Your story can help others live with faith and courage.

Your story could make all the difference

in a person’s life.

Your story could lead someone

to take a fresh look

at God,

at life,

at faith.

Your story could change the way

a person lives.

Your story could fortify a timid heart.

Write your story!

Who are you, that you should write your story?

You? Write a book?

You might be asking yourself, “Who am I, that I should write my story? I’m not a Moses, or a David, or a Paul, or an Abraham….”

But wait! Moses killed an Egyptian. Then he hid in the desert for 40 years.

And later, when God told him to confront Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses made all kinds of excuses. He balked and squirmed and wailed, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it” (Exodus 4:13).

Here’s the point: It’s not that Moses was so great—it’s what God did: He enabled Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into the land of milk and honey—and so much more!

Then there’s David, and Paul—it’s easy to think of them as saints, but they really messed up sometimes. Their lives were a mixture of faith and willful disobedience, spiritual successes and failures, yet God used them in mighty ways and continues to do so today. It’s not what David or Paul did, it’s what God did.

“Abraham is … one of the most important men in the history of the world. What makes Abraham so important … is not his sterling character (which he did not have), his outstanding intellect (which may have existed but it is not mentioned), his charming personality (he could be pretty annoying) or substantial personal accomplishments (he had few, apart from his pilgrimage to the promised land). What Abraham is remembered for is his faithfulness in obeying God’s call to undertake a long and demanding journey. …It was not so much what Abraham did, but what God did.… In Abraham we see not so much a saint in action; rather, the faithfulness and graciousness of God.… In Abraham we see an ordinary man who is used by God, not because of who Abraham was, but because of who God is.…” (Richard Peace, Spiritual Storytelling).

So, write your stories—not because of who you are, but because of who God is.

Your stories are important not because of your sterling character, outstanding intellect, charming personality, or personal accomplishments.

Your stories are important not because you’re a saint in action, but because of God’s faithfulness and graciousness.

Like Paul and David and all the rest of us, your life has been a mixture of:

faith and willful disobedience,

belief and unbelief,

hope and hopelessness,

innocence and guilt,

spiritual successes and failures.

Your stories are important because you are saved by God’s grace. Your stories are important because—within His grace—you are His and He is yours.

Take the spotlight off yourself and, instead, focus it on what God has done.

It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves.

Our only power and success come from God.

(2 Corinthians 3:5, NLT)

…Our adequacy is from God.… Therefore, having such a hope,

we use great boldness in our speech [or writing].…

(2 Corinthians 3:5, 12, NAS)

God wants all of us to tell our stories!

Depend on God to make you adequate for this awesome task.

Use heavenly boldness in your writing.

Your stories can help your readers

become all God created them to be.

My mother and “Things unseen and eternal”

My sweet little mother died a few days ago and my family and I are grieving her loss. (See pictures of her at A pause.)

Professionally, Mom was extraordinarily accomplished, but everyone knew the most important things were her family, God, and her church.

I am deeply thankful to her for teaching us how to know, serve, and love God and others.

Mom showed us how to live well, how to grow old with dignity and grace and, in the end, how to die well—to die in peace.

King David, too, lived well and died well, in peace. In the Bible he is commended for carrying out his duties with integrity of heart and with skillful hands, and then, when David had accomplished God’s purpose in his own generation, he died (Psalm 78:70-72, Acts 13:36). 

When David breathed his last breath, what a sense of peace he must have held, knowing he had accomplished God’s unique purposes for him. What a sense of satisfaction (the right kind)!

I am confident my little mother, too, lived with integrity of heart and with skillful hands—that she accomplished God’s purposes for her generation, and died in peace. Hers was a life well-lived.

Dying. Death. What are they?

Here’s what Henry Van Dyke wrote:

A Parable of Immortality

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side

spreads her white sails to the morning breeze

and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch

until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud

just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says,

‘There she goes!’

Gone where? Gone from my sight—that is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull and spar

as she was when she left my side

and just as able to bear her load of living freight

to the places of destination.

Her diminished size is in me, not her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says,

‘There she goes!’

there are other eyes watching her coming

and other voices ready to take up the glad shout,

‘Here she comes!’ 

(Henry Van Dyke)

I know Mom heard, loud and clear, “Welcome! Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21).

I can only begin to imagine what she’s experiencing now.

She is seeing God face to face.

Eternal life is no longer something she only partially grasps.

Mysteries suddenly make sense.

Heavenly, unseen things are perfectly clear.

All the pieces have fallen into place.

Everything that puzzled her now makes sense.

She’s now involved in a “…contemplation of things unseen and eternal” (A Diary of Private Prayer, John Baillie).

How about you?

What are your thoughts about dying?

What do you think heaven will be like?

At the end of your time on earth,

what will it be like to stand before God

face to face, one on one?

What stories can you write for your kids, grandkids, and great-grands?

Dying and death and God and heaven seem elusive and mystifying and scary, especially for young people, so writing about them can benefit both you and your readers. Your stories can quiet fears. They can help others live with courage as they face the unknown.

Your stories can make readers think. Examine. Refine their stances. Take a fresh look. Maybe change the way they live, especially when their time on earth draws to an end.

“There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die…”

(Ecclesiastes 3:1-2).

In writing your memoir, teach your readers how to live,

but do more than that: Teach them about that “time to die.”

God can use your stories to bless your readers. Really!

Stories are among God’s most powerful tools.

They can fortify timid hearts,

help people make important decisions

and find their way,

and inspire readers to find God’s purposes for their lives.

Your stories can change lives forever.

Related posts:

A time to be born and a tie to die

A pause

Who is your Abigail?

Have you ever gotten yourself into a horrific mess that was dragging you toward certain ruin? Have you made an atrocious choice that would hurt other people?

Did you ever decide to carry out something you knew was wrong, something you could never undo—but it felt so good at the time?

Most of us have carried out—or tried to carry out—any number of vile things and now, when we look back, we’re sickened to recognize the appalling things we’re capable of doing! We’re horrified at how hard our hearts can become.

Well, we are not alone. Even David—yes, the David of the Bible, the guy God called a man after His own heart—committed despicable things.  

On one occasion, David decided to slaughter a bunch of people but God intervened: He sent Abigail to persuade David to change his mind (1 Samuel 25).

Let me tell you about Abigail. While you read, put yourself in David’s shoes.

David and his men moved to a wilderness where a wealthy man, Nabal, owned thousands of sheep and goats. Because Nabal and his flocks were vulnerable to thieves and other dangers, David and his men watched over them.

When David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep—a time when Nabal would have had plenty of money from selling the wool—David sent ten men to Nabal on a feast day, a day most people showed extra generosity to others. 

David told his men to say to Nabal, “Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours! ….When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was stolen from them. Ask your own servants and they will tell you. So would you be kind toward my young men…. Please give your servants and your son David whatever provisions you can find for them.”

One of Nabal’s men verified the character of David’s men:  “David’s men were very good to us and we never suffered any harm from them; in fact, day and night they were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep, and nothing was stolen from us the whole time they were with us.”

Now, Nabal is described in various versions of the Bible as being surly, mean, uncouth, churlish, stubborn, ill-mannered, harsh, evil in his doings, and dishonest. Read on and you’ll see why!

Nabal replied to David’s men, “Who is this guy David? Who is this son of Jesse?” (Saul had just acknowledged that David would be Israel’s next king!) Nabal continued, “Lots of servants these days have run away from their masters. Why should I take my bread and water and meat and give it to a gang of outlaws coming from who knows where?”

Imagine David’s surprise. His shock turned to insult. His sense of unfairness led to anger that led to a vow to take revenge that would lead to mass murder: David told his men, “Get your swords!” David strapped on his own sword and took 400 men and marched toward Nabal. David said, “He has paid me back evil for good. May God curse me if even one of Nabal’s household remains alive by 
tomorrow morning!”

Nabal’s wife, Abigail, is described in the Bible as intelligent, sensible, a woman of good understanding, and full of wisdom. (What a contrast to her husband Nabal!) She got word of David’s plan so she immediately set out to stop him and his men before they got to Nabal.

As she rode her donkey down a trail, she saw David riding toward her. She got down and bowed before David with her face to the ground. 

“Please don’t pay attention to what my husband said. He is a bad-tempered fool, just like his name means.” (In Hebrew Nabal means “fool.”) By her presence and her words, she tried to stop David 
from killing Nabal and his entire household. She said, “The Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands.” 

Abigail knew David still wanted to kill Nabal so she spoke a second time, “Let no wrongdoing be found in you.” 

Abigail must have sensed she still hadn’t convinced David so she tried a third time.

“When the Lord has made you king of Israel, you don’t want this to blemish your record. You don’t want on your conscience the staggering burden of being a murderer.” 

Finally, after three tries, Abigail persuaded David to change his plans. 

When he cooled off and came to his senses, he said, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you to me today! Blessed is your advice and blessed are you! Thank God, because you have kept me from murdering and carrying out vengeance.…  If you had not hurried out to meet me, not one of Nabal’s men would be alive tomorrow morning.” 


Who is your Abigail? Who persuaded you not to carry out a sinful act? Who urged you  to refrain from wrongdoing? Who begged you to think of your record, reputation, and future?  

Who helped you turn away from a particular sin and start living in a new, better way? 

Maybe, like Abigail, it took him or her two or three attempts, or more, but that persistence helped you choose right over wrong. 

Like David, have you acknowledged that God Himself sent that person to you? 

How is your life different today because of that person’s influence in your life?

Write your story! Someone needs it. 

Story idea: Your "lions and bears"

David was only a boy.

Goliath was a champion among Philistine forces, standing over six feet tall.

He was muscular enough to strut around wearing a bronze helmet, a coat of armor weighing 125 pounds, bronze greaves on his legs, and a javelin strapped across his back. His spear shaft’s iron point alone weighed 15 pounds.

Goliath was an arrogant, defiant, loud, taunting bully.

He terrified King Saul and the Israelite armies. Their fear had incapacitated them for forty days by the time little David entered the scene.

When David said he’d fight Goliath, King Saul scoffed, “You can’t win against that giant! You’re only a boy!” (See 1 Samuel 17:33.)

But David didn’t give up easily. He explained that while herding his father’s sheep,

“When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and take the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too.… The Lord who saved me from the claws of the lion and the bear will save me from this Philistine!” (verses 34-37)

King Saul finally agreed to let David face Goliath, and you know the rest of the story.

But let’s back up a bit. Imagine what went through David’s head before and during his fights with the bears and lions.

“I’M SCARED!”

“This is too hard!”

“Am I going to die? Save me, Lord! Make them go away!”

God could have made the bears and lions slink away, but He didn’t. Instead, He left them there and helped David fight—and win.

Later, when David faced Goliath, what did he think of the lions and bears then?

I suspect it was something like “Those lions and bears were easy compared to this!”

If God had not allowed David to fight the bears and lions, would he have been prepared to face Goliath? I don’t think so.


Those battles were opportunities for David to grow: phyically, mentally, and spiritually.


God used the bears and lions to prepare David for the future.


David remembered how God helped him in the past, and that gave him confident faith to face even bigger challenges.


Fighting lions and bears helped equip David to fulfill God's purposes for his generation (see Acts 13:36, one of my favorite verses).

Through the very process of fighting lions and bears, God strengthened David for even bigger challenges in the future.

What “lions and bears” has God allowed into your life? 

What did you learn about God in the midst of fighting your lions and bears? What did you learn about yourself?

Looking back now, in what specific ways did God use your lions and bears to deepen your faith and toughen you for an even bigger challenge—a “Goliath”?


What Goliaths have you faced since then?

Story idea: Write a vignette about God preparing, equipping, and strengthening you—through the process of fighting your lions and bears—to stand up to a Goliath, and win. 

Related post, My lions and bears:  http://grandmaslettersfromafrica.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-lions-and-bears.html

Your stories: Not because of who you are, but because of who God is

We’ve established that you are important to God.*


And we’ve recognized that your stories are important to God and your family.*


So you want to write your memoir, but you hear nagging little whispers:


“Who do you think you are? You? Write a book? What makes you so special?”


You might ask, “Who am I, that I should write such stories? I’m not a Moses, or a David, or a Paul, or an Abraham.…”


But wait! Moses witnessed an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews and got so mad that he killed the Egyptian.

Then Moses ran away and hid in the desert for 40 years.


And later, when God said He was sending Moses to Pharoah and wanted to use him to bring Israelites out of Egypt, Moses made all kinds of excuses and balked and wailed, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it” (Exodus 4:13).


The point? It’s not that Moses was so great—it’s what God did: He enabled Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into the land of milk and honey—and so much more!


Then there’s David, and Paul—it’s easy to think of them as saints, but they really messed up sometimes. Their lives were a mixture of faith and willful disobedience, spiritual successes and failures, yet God used them in mighty ways and continues to do so today. It’s not so much what David or Paul did, it’s what God did.


“Abraham is …. one of the most important men in the history of the world. What makes Abraham so important … is not his sterling character (which he did not have), his outstanding intellect (which may have existed but it is not mentioned), his charming personality (he could be pretty annoying) or substantial personal accomplishments (he has a few, apart from his pilgrimage to the promised land). What Abraham is remembered for is his faithfulness in obeying God’s call to undertake a long and demanding journey. It was not so much what Abraham did, but what God did.… In Abraham we see not so much a saint in action; rather, the faithfulness and graciousness of God.… In Abraham we see an ordinary man who is used by God, not because of who Abraham was, but because of who God is….” (Richard Peace, Spiritual Storytelling)


Bottom line: Write your stories—not because of who you are, but because of who God is.

It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves.

Our only power and success come from God.

(2 Corinthians 3:5, NLT) 

… Our adequacy is from God.… Therefore, having such a hope,

we use great boldness in our speech [or writing]….

(2 Corinthians, 3:5, 12, NAS)

Write your stories!

Depend on God to make you adequate for this awesome task.

Use heavenly boldness in your writing.

Your stories can help your readers

become all God created them to be.

*Related posts:

You are important to God, http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/05/you-are-important-to-god.html
Your stories are important, http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/05/are-your-stories-important.html