Do you have a story to tell?

Whether you're four or four hundred (I feel like it some days!) or anywhere in between, you do have a story to tell.

The story of your life.

If it's anything like mine, it's rife with conflict, probably a little romance, definitely scenes of good versus evil, and more often the choice between good and God's best.

See, the makings of a best-seller.

But the circumstances aren't really the point. The fact that you tell your story is. Here's why...

"I pray that you are active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." (Philemon 6)

I came across this verse in my reading this morning and it practically leapt off the page because that’s exactly what my Sunday Bible study lesson is about~ telling our story, sharing our faith.

I loved the “why” God answered in this verse. We tell our story, the story of how God intersected our lives, so that we’ll remember. So that we’ll understand all we have and who we are in Christ.

We need to remember.

Remember His goodness on those days when nothing seems good.

Remember His miracles when we have another to ask of Him and wonder if He’ll answer this time.

Remember His love for us, something we so easily forget.

See your story, like mine, was spoken into existence by the God who loves us so much He wanted us to spend forever with Him. So He made a way for that to happen.

A way that satisfied His absolute justice and grace at the same time.

The cross.

But only you can tell how Christ and His death on the cross and His resurrection changed you.

Only you can tell your story.

And there’s a world of people living lives of quiet desperation that need to hear it.

You do too.

If you’ve never considered that your story is anything worth telling, think again. God says it’s a good story. Because He created it. And He’s the focus.

But He invited you into the story and only you can add your unique focus that God will use in powerful ways.

Many of you know my story. The good, the bad, and the really ugly. What’s important is that God reached down into the life of a beaten down, lonely little girl named Amy and rescued her from the self-destruction that had taken over her life.

Jesus took all the awful stuff filling my head and my heart and in its place He put His perfection, His Life.

It took years for me to see that fact make a difference in my circumstances. And it’ll take a lifetime to fully comprehend what happened in that one moment in time.

But by telling my story to my children, the teens at church, the friends who read my blogs, I tell it to myself too.

I remember.

I remember the details of how God has healed my heart, my mind, even my body time and time again.

I remember black moments in my past when it was all I could do to get up off the floor because life hurt so much. And all I could do to simply call on the name of Jesus.

But I did. And He answered.

He called me by name and said I belong.

He says the same to you.

You belong to Him. He is everything you need.

That truth may sound like a Pollyanna Sunday school answer, but when you taste that truth through your tears you know without a doubt its real.

There are people in your circle of influence who need to hear just how real God is. You can tell them.

No matter where you are right now, your story matters.

To God.

To your heart.

To the people who love you.

To the people you don’t even know your life touches.

So please, share your story. Remember. And then lift your eyes to heaven and see God smile. At you.

Because even the God of heaven loves to hear a good story. Especially when it means spending time with you.