Grace in Our Stories...

This morning I posted this a discussion topic on "A Cup Of Grace Ministries" Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=79&uid=113988185306969#!/pages/A-Cup-Of-Grace-Ministries/113988185306969

And I thought I would post it on the blog as well for any that are interested in sharing their stories...


I was thinking this morning...well actually for a few days now about "our" stories. We all have one, a unique, maybe a bit tragic, a bit sad and also happy, joy filled -
I guess our stories are really all that we are. What it is that makes us each human, how we have all arrived at this place, where we are right now, at this moment in time?

It is not that we have arrived, but that we are travelling...travelling together or alone or a combination of the two.

As part of the wedding service for my friends Mark and Robyn I read this from Frederick Buechner:

“In the long run the stories all overlap and mingle like the searchlights in the dark. The stories Jesus tells are part of the story Jesus is, and the other way round. And the story Jesus is part of the story you and I are because Jesus has become so much a part of the world’s story that it is impossible to imagine how any of our stories would have turned out without him…. And my story and your story are all part of each other too if only because we have sung together and prayed together and seen each other’s faces so that we are at least a footnote at the bottom of each other’s stories. In other words all our stories are in the end one story, one vast story about being human, being together, being here. Does the story point beyond itself? Does it mean something? What is the truth of this interminable, sprawling story we all of us are? Or is it absurd to ask about the truth of it as it is to ask about the truth of the wind howling through a crack under the door?”
So what I think would be cool or interesting is if we would begin to share our stories here and in so doing be encouraged or inspired or awed by the stories we all have to tell. Our stories about this thing called life that we are all a part of - that we all share in."

My thought in starting this page was to provide a place to have a conversation of where we have been, where we are going and most importantly where we are right now, and right now….and…right now…and…as each moment moves past us and makes us who we are.

The more I have talked to people the more fascinated by all the stories I have become, how each person has gotten to where they are at. I do believe that there is some sort of liberation that occurs from the telling of our story, in knowing we are not alone, that there is solidarity in all that happens to us and if we look we can find someone who “knows” what it is we are experiencing and in that there is profound comfort.

So, in the coming days I will begin writing and sharing my story here, my journey. I call it (borrowing from Brennan Manning) my “second journey”. For me this second journey started on August 10, 2007 at 10:28 at night with a call from Carey Johnson (our Sherriff in Lake County, Mn) telling me about the accident my friends Mark and Mary had just been in and in which Mary was killed. That was the beginning for me of why and where I am at now. So I will continue to tell this story and I hope that some of you will also share some of your stories…