On Friday, I shared an Easter story Facebook can’t capture. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not hating on Facebook. I like scrolling through photos and statuses to get a glimpse into friends’ lives. But we all know it severely cramps our freedom to tell the whole story. Maybe it depicts only the precious 10-year-old’s perfect gymnastics routine and none of the falls it took to get there. Or, alternatively, it describes a terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad day that rivals Alexander’s (does anyone still read that classic?🙂 without allowing that this could make a really good story one day. From time to time, we need to remember the whole story — splendid moments of “the way it’s supposed to be” interlaced with the fallen world realities of “not the way it’s supposed to be.” (To quote Cornelius Plantinga’s great title). So here’s your chance… Write, tell, share a whole story…tons of ways you could go with this one — have fun! 1. Choose a topic:
- Write an Easter story — one from your childhood or a recent one.
- Write a resurrection/new life story — one that tells about how you were “raised to new life” in a particular way.
2. Consider these Scriptures: John 20; Romans 6:1-14; Rev. 21-22 3. Journal or take some notes on these questions:
- Describe moments of shalom. Shalom refers to peace, wholeness, rest, joy, abundance.(For more on shalom, see here, or check out any of the Living Story Bible study books).
- Describe moments of broken shalom. What was “not the way it’s supposed to be”?
- Where do you see loss — of life, hope, love, keys (we can get into the nitty-gritty of life too:-)
- Where in the story do you see the hope of a risen Savior?
4. Put it all together and write it:
- Do you want to organize chronologically?
- Do you want to organize with comparison/contrast? Do you want to describe all the good things first then the bad, or intermingle the two?
5. Share it: with a friend or group (share the assignment and get them to do one too!) with Living Story: Comment below with the title or first two sentences of your story, or tweet about your story with the hashtag #livingstory or post on Facebook and tag Living Story.
