WHAT IS YOUR STORY?

WHAT IS YOUR STORY?

The American writer, Marianne Wiggins, wrote the novel “Almost Heaven.”  One of her central characters is a middle-aged woman named Melanie John.  We meet her in the psychiatric unit of the Medical College of Virginia, suffering from hysterical amnesia.  Shortly before that, she was a happily married mother of four living in the Richmond suburbs.

But five weeks earlier, she and Jason, her husband and the love of her life, were headed down the highway with their four kids seated in the back.  Melanie had been writing during their drive, when a gust of wind carried her paper out the window.

Jason pulled the car over to the side of the road and Melanie got out and headed into a nearby field to recover her writing.  That’s when she heard a terrifying screech of tires skidding.  She turned just in time to witness another vehicle slamming into the rear of her family car.  The car exploded, and Jason and the children were killed instantaneously.

Melanie’s emotional system coped by shutting down completely – blocking out all memories of that day and, sadly, all memories of her family life as well.  The last 20 years were totally erased from conscious memory.  The last memory Melanie could recall was her graduation from law school two decades earlier.  But all of her major memories, of meeting Jason and falling in love, of her wedding day, of the births of her children, of the building of their new home, were absolutely lost.

Although her amnesia acted as an emotional anesthetic, Melanie was totally robbed of herself and had no real sense of the most meaningful parts of her identity.  Powerful unanswered questions filled her room.  Inside this shell of a body, who is Melanie John?  What is her life?  Where does she fit?  What’s her place and purpose?  Without the stories of the last 20 years, she had no easy way of knowing.  Without the stories of her past, there was no meaningful present, and quite possibly no meaningful future.

The novel recounts Melanie’s painful journey to recover her memories and regain her sense of self.  One of the things this story reminds us about is that our lives are made up of our stories.  Our sense of self, who we are, why we are here, where we fit and where we are headed are the roadmaps by which we make sense of our lives.

Indeed, our lives are fundamentally shaped by our family stories and our cultural stories, those times of gain and loss, those times of weeping and rejoicing, those stories that tell us who we are, those stories that reveal our priorities and our values.  Nevertheless, for the Christian there is an alternate story.  It is a faith saga that transcends culture, time, space and happenstance – providing us with meaning and direction.

My personal journey has a multiplicity of chapters, scenes, settings and life-events – some saturated with joy and fulfilment, some not so much.  But I do have one primary overarching story that colors all and affects all.  Do you want to know what it is?

Fanny J. Crosby, a blind Christian composer, captured it so well in the lyrics of her classic hymn, “Blessed Assurance.”

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long;

My friend, what is your story?

Sisters and brothers, be continually blessed, and please (above all else) MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY TO MEET OUR SOON COMING KING. Maranatha!