The Power of Story in Teaching Truth

As a kid, my dad would often tell my younger sister and I stories of his childhood. Like all kids, we often begged for just one more. We were completely enchanted as he relayed both the mischief and innocence of his youth.

When dad's mom died, I stood up at the funeral and told one of my favorites of these stories. 

"Dad was often bullied and one time a kid smashed a raw egg down his back.  Grandma couldn't just sit by and do nothing. As a good mom should, she advocated for and defended her kid. Grandma told Dad, you take this tomato here and when you see that kid you hurl it right at his face. And in Dad's words...' it was the throw of the century, the tomato splattered against the bully's face right between the eyeballs.' I thought I would share with you all because I am grateful to have a grandma who protected her child and who took action. I thought it showed her humor, her fiesty spirit and her love." 

My talk lasted two minutes and I didn't say anything extraordinary but I glanced at my dad and had never seen that look on his face. The character of his mom was remembered and honored in that short little memory. The story had brought out not only emotion but the reality that my dad had a mother who loved him.

Storytelling has existed throughout time and across cultures. Commercials, sporting events, news articles, movies all tell a story. Even quick Tik-Tok videos. When our kids recall the events of their day, they are telling a story. A court-room jury is hearing all the details of a story in order to come to the best conclusion of who is guilty and what really happened. History is a piecing together of artifacts and writings to determine the truth of the story.

Storytelling is a way to bring people together, to mourn, to comfort, to laugh, and I believe most importantly, to lead us to the truth. 

Jonathan Gotschall, an American literary scholar specializing in literature and evolution, writes in his book The Story-telling Animal How Stories Make Us Human: "The human imperative to make and consume stories runs more deeply than literature dreams and fantasy. We are soaked to the bone in story. But why?"

Gotschall's book is brilliant and fascinating and this question of why is woven throughout his writing. Why is storytelling and consuming seemingly part of our DNA? Why are we drawn to know the story?

Gotschall also says: "When we read non-fiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally, and this seems to leave us defenseless."

He is right on. Our heart and emotions always tend to affect more how we see the world. Our point of view in anything always seems to primarily obey the heart. To default to how we feel. But Gotschall, albeit brilliant, is I believe missing something crucial to his point of view. And point of view we know, can dramatically impact the story line. While humanity may default to our emotions, we still need the objective facts.

Humans are drawn to story I surmise because there is an author. A creator of life. And there's a big picture that this author wants us to understand. A blueprint for the purpose of humanity. Gotschall says stories are what make us human. I say the facts and emotions unmistakably point to an Author who has breathed life into humanity and written the happy ending. (Ecc 3:11)

Some of the primary elements of a story are: setting, characters, conflict, resolution.

Now before you get skeptical, let's briefly consider these elements and some facts about human life and the world around us. If each human life is in of itself a story, then the setting would be our world within the universe. It is widely accepted by scientists that the universe had a beginning which indicates a cause,  or a creator. The world is also precisely fine tuned which strongly implies a designer or the work of a mind.

Now let's talk characters. I think that humans are remarkably distinct from animals or other living things. We feel for others in any story because we can relate. Right and wrong is written on our hearts. (Rom 2:15) We hope and empathize with the characters when they mess up. We desire alongside them for reconciliation and justice. For what's wrong to be made right. In virtually every story, there is a hero, a struggle between good and bad. We cheer when evil loses and good triumphs. And we long to be rescued ourselves or to be the true hero, a defender of good and destroyer of bad.

And we desperately want all hurts to be resolved. The fact that humanity is imperfect presents a conflict. Human beings possess lives full of struggle. We have desires that don't seem to be fulfilled. We are mortal. We are destined for greatness but deeply fallen ... to sum up, we fall short of the glory of the author. 

And this author wants to reveal His character and the resolution. The author wants us to know that He strongly desires to be with the characters he created. And he primarily reveals this plan of redemption and rescue through a book. 

This book is really more of a library but the Bible in it's entirety points to Jesus. Jesus is the resolution. The same God and author of the world and human life becomes human flesh. And he primarily teaches the truth through, you guessed it: story. Jesus used over 30 parables in the synoptic gospels to reveal His character, humanity's problem and His way of resolution. His death as an atoning sacrifice between imperfect man and an infinitely, perfectly good God. Our rescuer who wants nothing more than to be with his beloved.

My point of view effectually leads to the fact that we are made in the image of God. We are His family. Being made in his image simply means we possess a mind, we have emotion and we have a will.

Our own words, our own creative works, our own stories reflecting our Creator and sustainer of our lives and our stories. The One who will have the final Word.

Sadly but truthfully without an author, there is simply no story. The characters of humanity are all a by-product of an accidental event. There is no standard of right and wrong. No design. No plan for rescue or resolution. No distinction of good and evil. No hope. No true love. No happily ever after.

We need our hearts to point to the facts. Because we were born to know the ultimate story. We need our hearts and our emotions because we do have a will.  We were given freedom.  And we all have a choice to make. It is up to us if we want to know the author and rescuer.  Like any good tale will show us, there is no true love without the choice to love in return.

Just like my Grandma gave my dad what he needed, God does the same because He loves us with an everlasting love. God the author instills in humanity a love for a good story. And he gives us a hero in Jesus as the bridge to our loving  Father. 

 So the moral of the story? Or the point of this blog post? Be on the side of good. Use your mind, your emotions and your will and chose the author and perfecter of our faith. As the story goes, good will always overcome evil. Just like my dad, we need the stories to lead us to reality. The reality of a God who loves His people. Consider your life story. And I can promise you from my own tale thus far, that it will be the most delightful turn of events for you to personally know the author. After all, happily ever after is written on our hearts.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

God has set eternity in the human heart, but (yet) no one can fathom what God is doing