Why You Don't See Your Story as a Blessing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You have a story to tell. Your God story. The story of how God intersected your life at key moments, in pivotal circumstances, with providential\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/why-you-dont-see-your-story-as-a-blessing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why You Don't See Your Story as a Blessing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You have a story to tell. Your God story. 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{"id":1349,"date":"2013-11-18T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mtvpastor.com\/?p=1349"},"modified":"2013-11-18T09:00:13","modified_gmt":"2013-11-18T15:00:13","slug":"why-you-dont-see-your-story-as-a-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/newwineskins\/why-you-dont-see-your-story-as-a-blessing\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Don't See Your Story as a Blessing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"blessed\"$ <\/a>You have a story to tell. Your God story. The story of how God intersected your life at key moments, in pivotal circumstances, with providential relationships. The story of how God intersected your life and you walked away forever changed. As Christians, our God story is a blessing, something given to us to bless others with. But many of us don\u2019t see our story as a blessing. Perhaps we see our story as:<\/p>\n

Too flawed.\u00a0<\/b>You don\u2019t think your story is a blessing because all it reveals is just how much you were able to mess up your life. You drank, smoke and chewed, and ran with girls that do. You\u2019ve got consequences, addictions, arrest records, broken marriages, kids you don\u2019t see. You don\u2019t see a story worth telling.<\/span><\/p>\n

Too normal.\u00a0<\/b>You grew up in a decent family, went to church as a kid, gave your life to Jesus at VBS when you were seven, and you\u2019ve been in church ever since. You don\u2019t feel you have a compelling story because you weren\u2019t a drug dealer or convicted felon, because those are the ones the church loves to showcase. You\u2019ve lived a normal church life. Nothing out of the ordinary. How\u2019s that story a blessing? (How many folks with a story that\u2019s \u2018too flawed\u2019 would give anything to have a story that\u2019s \u2018too normal\u2019?)<\/p>\n

Too painful.\u00a0<\/b>Some don\u2019t like to tell their story because it\u2019s too painful. Too many memories you try and keep locked away. Maybe it\u2019s abuse, maybe it\u2019s an addiction, maybe it\u2019s a loss of a loved one that you still can\u2019t see any redeeming value in. Maybe your story has something painful that still lingers today. It\u2019s raw, and you don\u2019t want to go anywhere near it. But it\u2019s a part of your story; you just don\u2019t see it as a blessing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Too fake<\/strong>.\u00a0What I mean by this is that on the outside people look up to you, respect you, say nice things about you. You\u2019re a pillar in the community, a solid leader in your family. But on the inside, you know the truth. You project the image of someone who loves Jesus and is living right, but on the inside, there\u2019s nothing there. It\u2019s all a charade. You\u2019re not even sure you believe in God anymore. The reason you\u2019re in church is because of expectation, habit, duty. The story you let others believe isn\u2019t the real story. If they knew the real you, well, you can\u2019t have that now, can you?<\/p>\n

The Bible is clear that our story is in fact a blessing, even though many of us don\u2019t believe it. Wednesday we\u2019ll discuss just how your God story is a blessing from God.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"