Tell It More Than Once

At an Amish quilt auction many years ago I noticed a curious practice. The bidding for a quilt would be going at a fast pace. The auctioneer would declare it sold, in usual fashion. Then the winner of the sale would wave his hand in a circle and shout, "Sell it again!" The same quilt would then reenter the bidding process and the people would bid on it with no less vigor than the first time around.

I'm used to buying something once and taking it home with me. In only a few cases do I like re-reading books or watching movies more than once. I certainly enjoy them the first time around, but am not that motivated to return to them. I realize that I miss a lot by not re-entering the worlds they create. And stories do create worlds of thought, imagination and even healing.

Martin Buber, an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher, reveals the power in telling a story: "A story must be told in such a way that it constitutes help in itself. My grandfather was lame. Once they asked him to tell a story about his teacher. And he related how his teacher used to hop and dance while he prayed. My grandfather rose as he spoke, and he was so swept away by his story that he began to hop and dance to show how the master had done. From that hour he was cured of his lameness. That's how to tell a story" (quoted in Parker Palmer, The Active Life, 36).

Telling our stories accesses and releases energy that can heal or harm. The stories we choose to tell and remember can have a dramatic effect on us. The Christian faith is filled with stories that we keep telling again. They are about God's mighty acts of creation, liberation and salvation in Jesus Christ; stories that involve us and challenge us to change. In Vacation Bible Schools and Music & Drama Camp we participate in the great tradition of telling the stories of Jesus again. We do so in hope that we will be helped in telling the story, again. There is of course the chance that nothing will happen. But we won't know until we try.

Choosing to act with the power in our stories is the challenge from the great theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in this comment on prayer: "Has prayer transported (you) for a few short moments into spiritual ecstasy that vanishes when everyday life returns, or has it lodged the Word of God so soberly and so deeply in (your) heart that it holds and strengthens (you) all day, impelling (you) to active love, to obedience, to good works? Only the day will tell." May your summer be full of life-giving stories that you are willing to hear and tell again.

Catch and Keep

A turning point in the friendship of Denver Moore and Ron Hall, recounted in Same Kind of Different as Me, came when Denver commented on the style of fishing called "catch and release". He said it really bothered him because "we eat what we catch...in other words we use it to sustain us." He continued, "So, Mr. Ron, it occurred to me: If you is fishin for a friend you just gon' catch and release, then I ain't got no desire to be your friend." Ron felt like the world halted in midstride and fell silent like a freeze-frame scene on TV. Suddenly Denver's eyes gentled and he spoke softly: "But if you is looking for a real friend, then I'll be one. Forever."

In many ways we are disappointed by the failed commitments others make to us and the commitments that we fail to keep. We catch and release friends along the way. Sometimes we transfer that disappointment and lack of dependability to God. The ancient writer, Teresa of Avila, observed that our difficulties in prayer come from "Praying as if God were absent. Many of our difficulties in daily life are probably the result of living as if God were absent" (The Tree of Life, 212). Doubting God's commitment and presence with us may mean that we hesitate to move ahead in prayer, service or deeper friendship with God and others. It's at this point that we can be reminded by God's grace that a primary name for Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. That means God's got our back, front, and middle; past, present, and future because we are caught and kept in friendship by the Holy Spirit. And in this embrace we are sustained and set free to love. May God bless you and keep you in real friendships this summer and forever.