“God will bring people across your path who need someone who understands. When a divine appointment meets a deliverance story, healing happens. You may never know the why of your story, but you can experience the how of redemption when you share how God got you through.”- Sharon Jaynes (emphasis author’s)
Sharon Jaynes concludes Chapter 8 of When You Don’t Like Your Story as she relates the truth of Luke’s account of the man born blind to our lives. God displays His work in our lives as he heals our hurt, binds our brokenness, and miraculously redeems our messiness. However, we must decide to tell about it.
Therefore, Sharon exhorts:
“Death to life never gets old. We should never diminish the power of our stories, no matter how dark or disappointing they may be, no matter how boring or uneventful they may seem. Don’t hide your story in hopes on one will ever hear it. Tell it. Show it. Celebrate God’s work through it.”
Furthermore, when we tell our stories to a hurting person, we come near to them and our words comfort them. And they do so in a way that empty platitudes and easily-recited Bible verses cannot. Certainly, God comforts us to make us comfortable. Above all, though, God comforts us to make us comfort-able. Able to comfort others. Consequently, Sharon counsels, keeping our stories to ourselves denies others the comfort that is ours to give.
In conclusion, Sharon stresses, your story reflects something unique and specific about God’s character. And the way He works in the lives of His people. Levi Lusko, who lost his five-year-old daughter Lenya to an asthma attack, issues this challenge . In Through the Eyes of a Lion, he writes:
“You have a unique and powerful voice, and as long as you have breath in your lungs, there is a microphone in your hands. How you use that platform you have been given is your choice every day.”
Today’s question: Describe when your divine appointment met a deliverance story. Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Bearing an untold story inside of you”
