What’s Your Story?

This past weekend we attended Mrs. Sweetie’s thirty year high school reunion.  Man, there were a bunch of old people there!  She says that someone can’t count because a twenty-nine year old could not possibly have graduated thirty years ago.  I’m just going with her on that.  And since mine was last year, all the senior citizen jokes just ricochet back at me.

Reunions can be interesting events.  We have attended together our respective reunions every decade.  There seems to be this longing to reconnect with your heritage.  There could be a bit of morbid curiosity, too, and maybe a secret hope that you have aged more gracefully than your classmates.  (My hair may be graying, but at least it’s hanging in there).  The best line of the evening was one gal who said she thought about losing weight for the reunion, but she didn’t think about it until that afternoon. 

At the thirty year mark, it appears that the connecting part has become more important than the event.  The decorations, the silly awards, and even the oldies music played by the DJ all took a back seat to the shifting clusters of people telling their stories.   And when you are the spouse at the event and you can’t join in the reminiscing, that is the only level where you can engage.

The stories and the responses were all over the map … the guy no one recognized because he grew seven inches after graduation … the girl with nine grandchildren … the girl who had battled breast cancer and won … the guy who had been recently widowed … lawyers, doctors, school teachers, private chefs, city managers, firefighters … nobody arrives at this age without a story.

As one who has spent all my adult years as a preacher type (or in Mrs. Sweetie’s case, the wife of one of those), I sometimes hear the “edited” version of the story.  That’s ok.  I can live with it.  It is what it is.  The really cool tradeoff is that I also get to hear a lot of the faith stories that  people might not share with just any classmate—or especially the spouse of a classmate.  I love seeing the moisture in the corner of someone’s eye when they talk about how God drew close to them during those challenges.  I love hearing about how they got plugged into the church where they worship and the ministries that they support.  I love when they ask if I have ever met their pastor. 

 

I recognized a long time ago that God is all over my story.  Most of the decisions of my life as a Christ-follower for over 40 years have been built around trying to discover how He has been writing my story.  Some people take a little longer to come to that realization.  But, the most important issue is not WHEN you arrive at that realization, but THAT you arrive at that realization.  God is writing your story and your life matters to Him.

Even if your hair has turned gray or turned loose.