“What’s your story?”

On Sunday, our pastor talked about how we have Grace Stories to tell.  What would you tell someone who asked, “What is your story?”

Simple question.

I think our pastor has asked me this question before. But I’ve just realized that—as much as I love happy endings—often I don’t tell the best part. Do you ever do that?

Do you ever start with the bad parts
and never get to the happy ending?

Often my story starts and ends with loss and shame. I tell the hard parts, and I just stay there.

I tell my kids about how we didn’t have much money in our house growing up. I talk about the hand-me-downs and the worry, about no air conditioning in the car in the Deep South, about the pot holes on our street and in my heart…about feeling small, in the bad way.

I tell my husband about the rejection and insecurity and the not “fitting in.” When I was a young girl, I didn’t want to be the only one in the school with my name, the only “Britta” in my town. In high school, I didn’t want to be the one with the rough and tough Marine for a dad. I wanted to be anonymous and “normal,” not unique and original.

I talk to other women about deep hurts and the remaining unanswered questions. We know them by heart and they bind us together, these wounds.

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is  (Ephesians 3:16-18, NLT).

Yet, my story is a Grace Story. And I don’t think to tell it as often because I get stuck on my need and shame instead.  The good news, the Gospel truth, starts like this: I made mistakes and repeated them again and again. Then afterward, I found brand new ways to break my word and break relationship and break faith. And I lived stuck in that place too many years.

Yet, the Righteous King, the Holy One…He pursued me. He rescued me. And even when I go back down the wrong streets, in my heart, He never ever leaves me.

This is my true story. What would my conversations be like if I told the happy ending to my story more often? How would my heart feel if I constantly remembered how high and deep and wide the love of God is for me?

If you can’t remember your Grace Story or if you don’t have one, please Come Study with Us, starting next Monday. We will dive deep into the Truth that we’ve been given a new life, if we are in Christ. We are reading Inseparable: Who I Am, Was and Will Be in Christ.

So, what’s your Grace Story?

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