I need stories to connect.
- When you tell me stories about Jesus turning water into wine or calming storms, the power of God is more real to me than when you offer a lecture on The Power of God.
- When you tell me the story about when your sisters were adopted by A Nice Family, but that Nice Family wouldn’t adopt you until after you got corrective back surgery, I can offer better pastoral care than if you simply tell me you spent a couple years in an orphanage.
- When you tell me the story about your decision to share a child for adoption, I can understand your stance on abortion better than if you merely put a pro-life bumper sticker on your fender.
- When you tell me the story about that time your special needs child was excluded from an art class, I get why you work as an public education activist.
We need stories to make sense of the world. My political proclivities have been impacted by my personal experiences with LGBTQ people and refugees and undocumented workers and people of color and immigrants. I would like to hear the personal stories which have impacted your own politics.
Sharing our stories might well save us from further divisiveness in this country and throughout the world. It’s harder to hate people when we know what they’ve been through in life.
Image by Brian Moore
A Church for Starving Artists 
“It’s harder to hate people when we know what they’ve been through in life.” Truth!
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I’m currently working with a sixth grade class of students who attend school in one of the poorest zip codes in America. We are writing stories of friendship, and I am encouraging them to tell stories about their friends who they claim are amazing. “Tell me what makes them amazing. Tell me a story.” It’s hard for them to go beyond just descriptive words, but I know we all have to get beyond describing someone to actually telling a story about how we have interacted with one another.
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Thank you so much for sharing this. You are a good teacher.
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The artist is Brian Moore. Here’s a story about him and the painting from 2008: http://www.thebatavian.com/music?page=18.
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Thank you Phil.
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