Once Upon a Time…

I’ve always loved a good story.  My dad used to make them up for us at bedtime, we read scores of them growing up and traveled to far away worlds in our hearts and minds, we’ve made them up for each other on long road trips.  Sometimes we played that game where each person makes one part of a story and you end up with a bunch of weird, funny nonsense.  This morning in church, I was reminded by the pastor’s message that we’re all living a story.

In a good story you’ll find a character, or characters, facing and doing what they can to overcome obstacles to achieve something, to reach a desired outcome.  You know, protagonist, antagonist, plot, setting, climax, resolution of conflict, and more.

What type of story are you living in?  How about me? Continue reading

Really?

One of my pet peeves is when people forward an emotional story or prayer request, or sensational news story that gets people all riled up and isn’t even true.  It seems we, the human race, are pretty quick to believe what other people say.  Either that or we’re too lazy or careless to find out if it’s true before spreading it around to others.

I’ve had emphatic pleas from friends who read that if you forward this email to 100 people such and such famous company will send you a check for lots of money, using some email tracking program that doesn’t even exist!  I’ve received prayer requests that are no longer valid – either the person was healed, found, or the situation remedied and the request just keeps circulating and circulating.   The fabricated stories about faith are the ones that frost me the most.  I once read an email story about Billy Graham evangelizing with the entire crowd from one of his rallies in New Orleans, many being saved, only to find out that someone made it up.  It never happened.   Continue reading