The Shaping Power of Narrative

Betty Sue Flowers, who is the Director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library, is one smart cookie. She was the keynote speaker at the recent conference I attended, and among other things, she spoke about the power of the stories that live around us--that we shape our personal story to the larger life stories that emerge around us.

She suggested (my paraphrase here) that we give ourselves a choice--we can write/tell our story as a heroic one or as a victim story. The way we cast ourselves in our own stories will largely determine how we live and how we think.

I am very intrigued by that comment, and I have been thinking about it ever since. When I think about the story of my own life, do I cast myself as a heroine or as a victim? Think about the implications of that answer.

How do I get my children and my students to re-write their stories so that they see themselves in the shoes of the hero? How do I encourage them to see their stories connected to the greater story of God?

We have a choice. We either see our lives and stories as a reflection of God's greater story of triumph and redemption, or we frame our stories in the context of meaninglessness and purposelessness and loss.

I'll keep thinking about this.
Jana