Podcast Season #4
Starting up a new podcast season, and this time around, we're going with the theme of "story." I'm always interested in how art forms play out with tension and resolution. All of the art that we deem valuable contains a measure of uncertainty and resolution. And as I have a collection of short stories (coming soon to digital stories near you!) I'm kind of in the story theme.
Story truth is gospel truth. We were told facts equal truth. But, facts are often tough to nail down; slippery. (Reminds me of the folks who like to say, "You're on a slippery slope by doing all this considering and reconsidering of theology and ecclesiology." Ha, you know who I think are on the "slippery slope?" People who immediately go to the defensive and often insecure position of saying, "Oh, you're on a slippery slope!") Don't get me wrong. I'll take facts when I can get them, but I recognize facts will always be interpreted through story. Facts are more about how. Story is more about why. And we get to the “fuller truth” when we deal with the why.
For example, though we don't always know how accurate all the details are, we could characterize Israel invading other countries during Old Testament times as fact. The real interpretation centers around their motivation. Did God instruct them to invade? Or did they have an idea of a God who told them to invade?
Was it God's will that Joshua kill? Or was it more of Josh justifying the story his prefrontal cortex was telling him about God?
Did God need King Saul to wipe out the Amalekites? Or was the prophet Samuel, the guy Saul took counsel from, a grumpy old man projecting his prejudice and bitterness onto God?
Story, bro. Story.
It's about the story we're telling ourselves. It's startling to realize this, but the sacred text we call the Bible will read you as much or more than you will read it. (e.g., Rorschach Test)
There's been some psychological work done by guys like Paul Zak and others that suggest that stories bring brains together. Apparently, stimulating the brain stirs up oxytocin that creates empathy which winds up being a crucial component in humans building relationships with each other.
Wow, story is powerful. It releases neuro-chemical inside us. They get in us and then work their way out of us. This is probably why a movie, poem, or song can stick with you for years in ways that facts from a textbook cannot. Story truth is real.
One of the things I most appreciate about story truth is how it can use your context to get your attention, and then once inside of you, open you up in a way that causes you to see the problems and inconsistencies of your context. Story truth is auto-biographical in this way. I was thinking this when I first watched the award-winning film La La Land. It's a beautiful story that, among other things, tells a story about how difficult Hollywood is. And the whole thing is filmed inside of Hollywood. So when these people put this up on the screen, they're actually making something of an autobiography of their own lives.
Story inside of story! It's a reminder that stories are going on around us all the time.
For the Jesus follower, it seems that story truth is hope and betrayal, wandering and homecoming, love, and risk, the pinnacle of which is tragic death followed by spectacular resurrection. I love how the British author, Francis Spufford, points out it's the only story we've ever heard ending with a murder and then a wedding featuring the one murdered!
Yes, story is interesting, good, and important, but also dangerous. It'll open you up to truth in ways facts cannot. This is why the powers don't want the commoners to mess with the story. The powers love the cold hard facts, things written in black and white, statements, manuals, codes, laws; things they can use to disenchant the world, rationalize their particular way, systemize and calculate. But that's not–thank God–how story works.
So, we're going to spend some time during this upcoming season of the podcast thinking about and talking to others about story, which leads me to close where we started.... good stories have inciting incidents. No one imagines a good story is one without tension. And your life is no different. You are a work of art. Life is hard, really hard sometimes, but don't give up. The problems don't mean you're failing… they just mean you're in the middle of a really good story.
