I Love to Tell the Story - What She Said Part 14 - Week 7 Day 6

TODAY'S TREASURE

I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

Psalm 40:10

Transcript

I Love to Tell the Story

Patsy Kuipers, Guest Writer

Today’s Treasure

I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

Psalm 40:10

I spent most of my 30-year career working as a carpet stylist for a large fiber producer. I followed color trends, made samples using the fibers we produced, and visited customers, helping sales and marketing reps explain the exceptional qualities of our products. But there was a brief stint when I worked with bath rug fibers, the softest, most luxurious fibers we made for floor covering end uses. 

Even though over three decades have passed, I clearly remember a customer meeting where we were requesting input on a developmental fiber. I described its attributes and started a single sample on its journey around the conference room table. It never made it beyond the owner of the company. Like a child with a pet bunny, he stroked the sample repeatedly, extolling its softness. I passed out other samples featuring styling suggestions for existing fibers. He’d finger them, comment, then pass them along, all the while retaining possession of his far-superior prize. 

I can’t recall if anyone else got to touch the prototype or how I eventually removed it from his grasp, but I can still see him stroking that sample. 

I was reminded of this long-ago scenario when my daughter Mary introduced me to the intriguing phrase “story fondling.” I followed up our conversation by doing some online searching and came across an article that described in more detail what Mary had alluded to. 

In essence, story fondling involves an unwillingness to let go of the past and move on. Instead, some of us choose to hold on to past hurts and regrets, be they self-inflicted or brought about by others. Much like my customer and the beloved sample, we grasp the memories, caressing, replaying, and retelling them until they come to define and, all too often, paralyze us. 

Please don’t misunderstand. I know firsthand how damaging denying the impact of our past can be. We may manage reasonably well in the present, at least until something tears the scab off a long-festering wound. Early in my marriage, I’d occasionally respond to something with such intensity my perplexed husband would comment, “Don’t you think you’re overreacting?” Of course, his query only fueled my dismay and evoked glare-accompanied replies such as, “You don’t understand!” Nonetheless, looking back with a perspective transformed by time and Truth, I know he was right. My vehement response had a little to do with the event that precipitated it, but so much more to do with the inner demons it awoke. 

Satan, the father of lies, delights in pushing “play” on the litany of negative messages we’ve embraced. Like a pesky earworm of the soul, the subconscious recording relentlessly repeats:

“You messed up. Again.”

“You’ll never be good enough.” (Or smart enough, thin enough, pretty enough, or whatever our perceived deficiency might be.)

“If people really knew you, they wouldn’t like you.”

Sound familiar?

LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT

Those well-worn, oft-replayed lines may feel comfortable in a twisted sort of way. After all, they’ve been part of us for a long time. But we belong to the Good Shepherd and are meant to listen to His voice as He contradicts the lies. Scripture declares we are new creatures in Christ. The old has passed away; the new has come. God’s Word also assures us that the Spirit is conforming us to the likeness of Christ, transforming us from one degree of glory to another. Even though we’re still being sanctified, we are already eternally and securely loved by the Father. 

Not only does God’s Word give us an accurate picture of who we are in Christ, but it also points us forward:

• This is what the Lord says—he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters… “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:16;18-19).
• God forgives our sins and removes them as far as the East is from the West. Thus, we may say with the Apostle Paul, “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13b-14).
• Ultimately, everything, including us, will be made new and perfect (Revelation 21:1-5).

I’m intentional in remembering milestones, anniversaries, and loved ones who’ve joined the great cloud of witnesses. Though there are days I’m tempted to indulge in self-pity or allow past experiences to become excuses for present behavior, I endeavor instead to use these times of recollection to remember God’s faithfulness, give thanks for His deliverance, celebrate my legacy of faith, resist repeating former sins, and comfort others with the comfort I’ve received.

I love to tell the story – ‘tis pleasant to repeat what seems, each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet; I love to tell the story, for some have never heard the message of salvation from God’s own holy Word. I love to tell the story! Twill be my theme in glory – to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love. (3)

If you’re going to cling to a story, make sure it’s one worth holding onto!

PRAYER

Dear Lord, You are so good to us! Please help us to share the story of Your great love and faithfulness with others and point them to the hope we have in You.

(3) “I Love to Tell the Story”, 2nd stanza. Text: A. Catherine Hankey.