Telling the right story is important.
Have you ever thought about that?
I just started writing a new book about the story of the Kingdom and as I was thinking through what would be included in the book, I started thinking about stories we tell ourselves and situations where I, or someone I know, has come face-to-face with a story that was inaccurate or a flat out untruth and I thought I’d take the time to share a couple of them.
Grandma and Kale
I made a copy-cat Zuppa Tuscana soup (Italian sausage, potato, and kale) and took it to my Grandma’s apartment for an afternoon of soup, bread, and The Gaithers. As we were eating lunch, Grandma commented on how much she loved the soup. I could tell it wasn’t just her being nice because she went back for seconds and thirds before we were done.
At one point she asked me if I liked kale and I told her I did. So, she offered me the fresh kale that a neighbor had given her earlier that morning.
I asked her why she didn’t want it and she said, “I don’t like kale.”
I grinned, thinking of her gobbling down 3 bowls of soup loaded with kale. I asked, “Have you ever tried kale?”
“Oh no,” was the immediate response. “Why would I try it when I don’t like it?”
I asked, “How do you know you don’t like it if you haven’t even tried it? In fact, you how would you know you’ve never accidentally eaten kale since you don’t know how it tastes?” I was holding back a giggle even as she gave me “the look.”
“Is that what’s in this soup?” She asked.
“Yep,” I said, “and since you’re on bowl number three I’m guessing it’s not all bad?”
Then she said this, “Well, maybe I like it but I don’t know how to cook it and I don’t want to learn.”
We had a good laugh and finished our soup.
Here’s what I loved about this exchange. Grandma knew as soon as I asked her if she’d ever tried kale that she was telling the wrong story, though she wouldn’t have put it in those words, she didn’t give up the story until she realized the story wasn’t true at all. At that point she chose to adopt a new story that had the same result – she gave me the kale she got from the neighbor and, as far as I know, never tried to cook it.
Obviously, this is not a life-changing story but it’s a great illustration. Grandma had avoided something that she had never even tried because she was persuaded that she didn’t like it. Note she wasn’t persuaded that she wouldn’t like it but that she already didn’t like it. If she thought she might not like it, she’d still be willing to try it but why try something you know for certain you don’t like? That story – “I don’t like kale,” kept her from even considering trying kale.
By the end of our brief conversation, the story changed – she did, in fact, like kale, at least in Zuppa Tuscana, and she would be willing to eat it again in some other dish if someone else made it but she had absolutely no interest in learning how to cook with this new ingredient. She was content with the things she already knew how to make and knew it.
Have you ever had an encounter with something you believed to be true and then found out you were telling yourself the wrong story? Did you change the story you told? What was the outcome?
Since my time in the hospital in November, I’ve found myself examining the stories I tell myself and many of them changed drastically as the Holy Spirit came along and gave me a different story. I’ll talk about those encounters in my upcoming posts, but I wanted to start with something simple and relatable, to get you thinking.
Happy New Year!
Food for thought: Jesus often said, “You have heard it said, now I say.” He was taking a story that was interpreted a certain way by how it was told and bringing it into a different light so those who heard it could tell the right story if they chose to. He never shoved His story, which was the absolute truth, down anyone’s throat. He simply told the story and allowed the seed of that story to do its work.
