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

 

Tuesday Tidbit: “Sometimes life takes us places we never expected to go”

Here's your Tuesday Tidbit, your 15 seconds of inspiration:

What surprises has God brought into your life?

—surprises that upset your plans and dreams

and sent you down a road you never expected to travel?

Maybe at the time

you didn’t recognize God was the one

who created the unexpected events

but now, looking back, connecting the dots,

you see He was orchestrating the twists and turns

in your life.

And they turned out well!

God intended them for good.

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

declares the Lord,

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future.”

(Jeremiah 29:11)

Have you put your story in writing—

even the story you thought would never be yours?

Your “Sacred Stories of the Ordinary”

“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 spiritual memoirs.

Writing a memoir includes looking back, pondering, sorting out, reflecting, mulling, examining, 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 forever more” (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.

Grandpa, my cousins, and me.

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.

Look for broader, deeper significance hidden in everyday moments.

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...” (emphasis mine).

Your stories are important. Write them for generations yet to come.

“Write what should not be forgotten.”

Isabel Allende

Adapted from a post of April 18, 2012

Marvel at the mosaic of your life

What does a memoir and a mosaic have in common?

You’ve probably known about mosaics since you were a little kid, but today let’s take another look.  

A mosaic is a collection of small stones (or bits of colored glass, tiles, pebbles, paper squares, seashells, or similar materials) which, when arranged and glued together just so, create a large picture, a piece of art.

Think of your life as a mosaic, and then read these words from Henri Nouwen. They’ll get the wheels turning in your head:

“A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones.

Some are blue, some are green,

some are yellow, some are gold.

When we bring our faces close to the mosaic,

we can admire the beauty of each stone.

But as we step back from it,

we can see that all those little stones

reveal to us a beautiful picture,

telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.”

Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey

(emphasis mine)

In the story of your life, stones of one color represent one experience, stones of a different color represent another experience.

Stones of other colors represent:

each person who comes into your life,

each choice,

each victory,

each relationship,

each heartbreak,

each celebration,

each new job,

each mistake,

each new home,

each joy,

each setback,

each surprise,

each significant life event.

Each little piece has a size and shape and color and texture of its own. Some are light and crisp and fresh. Others are dark and dull and brooding, while others are shiny and intense.

Each little piece plays a special part.

We often recognize the individual pieces—the individual events and people—of our lives and appreciate them up close at the time, but what about the bigger picture?

In writing memoir, we deliberately do what Nouwen says:

We step back, take a broader, deeper, higher look.

We glimpse the bigger picture, The Big Picture—

and WOW, it can surprise us!

It can bring us to tears.

Taken together, like Nouwen says,

it can “reveal to us a beautiful picture,

telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.”

And we realize that without each piece, the larger picture would lack in vibrancy and beauty, and it would be incomplete.

Make time to recognize not only the smaller bits and pieces of your life, but to stand back and marvel at the big picture.

When you do, you might hear God whisper in your ear: “Remember all the times I told you I knew the plans I had for you? They have been good plans, plans to prosper, not harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

When you look at the big picture, you’ll witness the way God brings beauty from ashes (Isaiah 61:3).

You’ll see that God does make everything beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Look for God’s fingerprints and footprints all over the mosaic of your life. Notice the ways God has guided you and brought you to where and who you are today. He is making a beautiful picture out of you and your life.

When you write your memoir, 

assemble the pieces—

the small bits of colored glass, stone, tiles, 

pebbles, paper squares, seashells—

and you’ll begin to see that, together, 

they’re “telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.”

The Butterfly Effect: It’s about more than butterflies

“Did you know

that there once existed a single man who,

more than a century ago,

MADE ONE MOVE …

that still dramatically

affects how you live today?”

Andy Andrews asks us that question in The Butterfly Effect.

He’s referring to a hypothesis presented in 1963 by Edward Lorenz, mathematician and meteorologist:

“A butterfly could flap its wings and set molecules of air in motion, which would move other molecules of air, in turn moving more molecules of air—eventually capable of starting a hurricane on the other side of the planet” (Andy Andrews, The Butterfly Effect).

In the early 1990s, physics professors around the world proved Lorenz’s hypothesis was accurate and is now known as The Law of Sensitive Dependence Upon Initial Conditions.

But the butterfly effect is about more than butterfly wings!

Andrews describes it this way:

“Science has shown the butterfly effect to engage with the first movement of any form of matter—including people.”

Andrews provides an example through the story of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a young, inexperienced Colonel in the Union Army who, in Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, led his men against one fierce rebel charge after another.

After surviving the day’s fifth brutal charge, Chamberlain and his men braced for a sixth—and even bigger—rebel charge.

Only 80 of Chamberlain’s 300 men remained.

Three sergeants huddled at Chamberlain’s feet, yelling, “Do something! Give an order!”

But what could Chamberlain do? His men had run out of ammunition.

He stood on a wall at the top of a hill, watching the approaching Confederate soldiers. Then he turned and ordered his men,

“Fix bayonets! … Fix your bayonets now!”

Knowing he faced overwhelming odds, Chamberlain led his men downhill, ripping his sword left and right.

Within ten minutes, Chamberlain had captured a Confederate captain, and his eighty exhausted, broken remnant of men—with no ammunition—had captured over four hundred rebel soldiers.

According to Andrews, historians believe that (1) had Chamberlain not charged on that particular day, rebels would have won at Gettysburg; (2) the South would have won the war; (3) possibly the U.S. would be two nations, the Union and the Confederacy; or (4) the U.S. would look more like Europe, divided into as many as thirteen nations.

Andrews goes on:

“Which means: When Hitler swept across Europe … had Chamberlain not charged on that afternoon so long ago, there would not have existed a United States of America to stand in the breach.”

When Hirohito invaded the South Pacific, “there would not have been a country big enough, strong enough, wealthy enough, and populous enough to fight and win two wars on two fronts at the same time.

“The United States of America exists as it does today because of a single man: One thirty-four year old … and one move he made more than a century ago.

“Don’t you see? Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is a human example of the butterfly effect. One man who made one move whose effects still ripple through your life today.” (Andy Andrews, The Butterfly Effect; emphasis mine).

Did you catch that?

What young Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

chose to do on July 2, 1863,

rippled throughout the generations

and still ripples through your life today.

Think about people whose lives still ripple through your life today—

a soldier, doctor, policeman,

a grandparent, teacher, missionary,

a stranger, singer, preacher,

even people from generations past:

maybe a nation’s leader, a spiritual leader,

an explorer, scientist, inventor.

Who were they? What did they do? How did their choices and actions impact yours?

Take time—make time—to discover the ways God has gone before you, preparing for and carrying out the plans He has for you (Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 139: 15-16). Notice the ways God has used people in the past to bless, protect, and lead you according to His purposes for your life.

And then: Write your stories!

Flutter your butterfly wings. Your children and grandchildren need to know about those people.

“There are generations yet unborn

whose very lives will be shifted and shaped

by the moves you make

and the actions you take today.…”

(Andy Andrews)

How an HGTV program demonstrated Jeremiah 29:11

A couple of evenings ago, HGTV’s House Hunters featured James, his wife Mindy, and their four children in their search for a house in southern California—but James was no ordinary man.

Born in Da Nang, Vietnam, during the war, James contracted polio in his infancy and inadequate medical help left him crippled in both legs.

James’ mother made the heart-wrenching decision to put him in an orphanage, no doubt hoping and praying he would find the help he needed.

Then, during the fall of Saigon, U.S. President Gerald R. Ford arranged emergency evacuation flights for some 110,000 Vietnamese, including two-year-old James.

James praised the American family that adopted and raised him and—then came the best moment, for me, of the program: James explained how thankful he was for his polio and for being given to the orphanage because, he explained, if he had remained in Vietnam, his life would have held bleak prospects and many hardships.

And isn’t that what Jeremiah 29:11 is all about?

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

declares the Lord,

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future.”

James recognized, and told HGTV viewers about, the blessings that resulted from what appeared, at first, to be disasters. Based on his words and his wife’s necklace, I’m sure James saw God’s fingerprints all over his life.

If you’ve been part of the SM 101 tribe for a while, you know where I’m going with this:

Think back on events that seemed all wrong, that threatened to destroy your dreams and hopes, that left you in despair.

Take a few days to take a long look at those events and search for God’s fingerprints all over them.

We often miss the most important Holy Fingerprints because we don’t take time to dig deeply and examine and think and pray.

Invest time in this until you can declare, like Elisabeth Elliot:

“The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be.

It may seem to be worse,

but in the end

it’s going to be a lot better and a lot bigger.”

Write a vignette for your memoir showing ways that, despite seeming setbacks, God had plans to prosper* you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).

You’ll find additional inspiration from these earlier blog posts:

Connect Your Dots, and my friend Barb’s cry, “Lord, You’ve said you’d make my path straight, so why is my path so crooked?”

You’re the bridge between generations past and generations yet to come.

Write your stories!

Your children, grandchildren and other readers

need to know they can trust God with their lives,

that He has plans to prosper* them

and not to harm them,

plans to give them hope and a future.

*The word prosper is, in Hebrew, shalom, meaning peace, completeness, tranquility, soundness, safety, and well-being. Here’s how Cornelius Plantinga describes shalom:

“The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom. We call it peace but it means far more than mere peace of mind or a cease-fire between enemies. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness and delight—a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be” (from Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be).

The BEAUTY and BONUSES of memoir

Wednesday I told you I have an exciting idea for you and your memoir—a spinoff from Sharon Lippencott’s two-column timeline.*

Let me explain:

Sharon’s two-column timeline is a document to include in your memoir (see Wednesday’s post*) for the benefit of your readers.

Beyond helping your readers, a timeline also offers bonuses for you, the writer:

First, in the process of making a timeline, additional stories will come to mind. Jot them on your list of stories-to-write-someday.

The second bonus—I’m so excited to share this with you!—results from adding a third column to your table. In that column, list what God was doing, specifically, in and for and through you during those years. (Think of your three-column timeline as a working document for you, the writer, rather than a document to share with your readers.)

This sample shows what such a timeline might look like:

I titled the third column “‘I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord (Jeremiah 29:11, NCV)” but other ideas include: “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me” (Psalm 138:8) and “All the days planned for me were written in your book before I was one day old” (Psalm 139:16). You can find any number of appropriate titles.

Filling in that third column will take time, and thought, and prayer—and it might even be a bit mysterious—but the effort will yield rich blessings!

This is where, in my opinion, memoir is deeper and higher and wider than other forms of storytelling: Pondering, examining, unraveling, musing, and retrospection won't let you remain on the surface of your life.

Memoir, within a spiritual context, invites you to look for the deeper purposes and lessons God has for you in your life's events.

Here’s the third bonus: In new and specific ways, you’ll discover God has been involved in your life, sometimes in momentous ways, sometimes in everyday ways, and not just now and then, but always.

Remember last Saturday’s post?* Sometimes we don’t realize God plays a role in everyday events, but He does.

He created each of us for Himself and for His unique purposes.

He plans for us, enjoys us, and delights to have a loving relationship with us.

God is always with us, always active in our lives.

Maybe what you thought were only coincidences and chance encounters were much more—they were God in action: orchestrating, arranging, and shaping your life’s direction.

And that brings us to the fourth bonus: Recognizing God’s loving involvement in your life transforms you and deepens your faith for the future. If you doubt that, give it a try—write your stories, include your discoveries of what God was up to back then, and see how those discoveries change your faith in Him!

Ah, the memoir genre is so rich for people of faith!

So, friends, I encourage you to fill in that third column.

  

Dig deep,

mull over,

reflect on,

and sort through what God was doing in the midst of your life’s events.

Don’t be content with your life’s historical facts alone! Be deliberate and unhurried in filling out that third column. The exercise offers you bonuses you won’t want to miss!

*Related posts:

Your personal timeline will help your memoir’s readers    

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/09/your-personal-timeline-will-help-your.html

What is a memoir

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-is-memoir.html

Everyday wonders  

http://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com/2011/09/your-memoir-everyday-wonders.html