The Greatest Story, part 1

During a luncheon meeting in Birmingham several years ago, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was asked what strategies were employed to help people heal  and build community after the fall of apartheid in South Africa?  "Encouraging and allowing people to tell their stories" was a major part of his response.  And I quickly thought to myself, is it really that simple?  Is the telling of a story that important? Can healing really occur through the telling and hearing of a story?  Can a nation be changed; can a community survive and thrive through the telling of stories?

Later, I thought and realized that the Bible is the greatest story ever told. The Bible is the bestseller of all times ... the story of Jesus, the Savior of the world ... written by 40 different authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit ... written over a period of 1500 years ... a vast accumulation of science, history, archaeology, geography, astrology, psychology, mathematics, physics, law, theology, sociology, gerontology, poetry, et.al.  The Bible gives the stories of so many:  David, a shepherd boy, musician, poet, warrior, king; Daniel who survived a night in the lion's den and became the prime minister in a foreign land; Joshua, an assistant to Moses for 40 years who became a military general; Paul, a tentmaker, scholar, persecutor turned apostle, writer of much of the New Testament; Luke, a doctor who penned both the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles; and so many more. The Bible is the greatest story of many stories -- the most read, most quoted, most shared, most widely known and distributed book ever written.

Are you telling your stories?  Are you sharing Bible stories?  Are you witnessing about the greatest story ever told?  With whom are you sharing stories?  Your spouse, children, family, friends, co-workers, bosses, neighbors, classmates, all with whom you are in contact.  God's people are commanded to talk about the greatest story all the time, wherever you may be -- when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up (see Deuteronomy 6:6-9).