We All Have a Story: Link it Up

"If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive." (Barry Lopez)

My church has been doing a series called Restore. At the end of each message there is a video of a couple or a person in the church sharing how they have been carried out of brokenness to a place of healing and restoration.

The stories they tell are so raw and powerful and brave. I've never seen anything like it. Each of these people sits down on a couch and lets themselves be filmed. They share their deepest darkness, the stuff that I've always seen be pushed away and hidden, knowing that it will be up on a huge screen in front of their community.

Their honesty is such an encouragent. They speak what I want, what I think we all want, to hear. That we are not alone in hitting the bottom, and that it is possible to come out of that place courageous, beautiful, stronger.

Whenever I watch their stories it makes me think about my story. I want to share my story, and I want to know yours. I believe with all my heart that sharing our stories, the real, ugly, broken ones, is one of the most powerful things in the world. Because to share our story we must accept it, we must own it, we must stop running from it or shoving it into the corner when company comes over. To share our story is to admit that we've been changed and let ourselves be seen.

I shared one of my stories on Monday. Today I invite you to share yours. To say the things you wish someone had told you. To shine some light on the road. So if you have a story, a healing, growing, God came near story,

Link it up...