So, You Have a Story?

I was sitting here thinking about an exciting event that happened yesterday for me. An editor of a Christian Magazine reached out to me asking for an interview. In fact , shortly before she asked, another magazine editor reached out asking for an interview as well. Yesterday I confirmed the date and time for one of them.

The confirmation made me pause and do some reflective thought. My initial thought was about some of the sordid and even shameful details of my past. I will spare the details for now. But some of the poor choices I have made in my life really made me question for a moment why anyone would want to interview me.

Sadly, while I was in the lowest places of my life, most of the religious world shunned me, exposed me, and pretty much left me for dead (figuratively speaking). Almost no one took the time or made the effort to find out what got me, a young man of God, to such a broken place. And even fewer had the ability to stick with me through all of it. The funny thing was, many of them could use my gifts… but aside from that I wasn’t considered to be worth much as a person because of my “stuff” Please don’t confuse these words for anger. By no means am I angry (anymore) because I realize that all of it was necessary for what God really wanted to do (and still does).

You see, most good stories have rising action which includes conflict.. which leads to the climax and then to the closing. A story that stops at the conflict is nothing more than tabloid. A climax with no conflict is nothing more than a press report. But the conflict coupled with the climax can lead to an amazing conclusion. What is even more cool is the fact that sometimes the conclusion isn’t actually the conclusion… but a setup for a sequel or perhaps even a series. So I had to write this today for the people who have a story and may be in the low portion now. Do not give up. The bible is full of characters with “histories”. But their history is what positioned them for their place in “THE BOOK”.