Your Story Matters!

Stories matter. Through them, we learn more about who we are, how God works, and what we have to offer others. In the first series of this semester we looked at the stories of Peter, Solomon, David and Joseph from a fresh perspective, to see what God was doing in and through their lives. It’s pretty clear that their stories matter because they still impact us today. But here is the part that can be harder for us to believe: our stories matters too.

Your story – all the parts and pieces that make up your life to this point – matters! Every victory and every failure, every trophy and every scar, every high point and every low point in your life has shaped you into the person you are today. Your story makes you a completely unique individual. So take a look into your story and see what God has been doing in you and teaching you all along. As you do this, we think you will realize that your story matters too much for you to keep it to yourself.

You have to share it with others! Your story might be exactly what someone else needs to hear right now. Most likely there is another college student that has questions-tough questions-that your story can help answer. There are students living life right now without hope that need to see the hope of Jesus made visible and tangible through your story, through your life. There are students out there that just don’t get God, they just don’t get Him because He seems like such an distant, vague, un-relatable God, but your story might change all that because God has been so real, so close, so involved in your story.

We want to help you articulate your story. So here are a few questions to help you think through (and maybe even write out) your story:

• Think about the people, experiences, and circumstances that have been significant in your life.
• What were some of the most positive and most negative of those?
• Are there some that you would consider to be defining moments in your story?
• If you have a relationship with Jesus, how did you come to that point?
• How has your relationship with Jesus changed your story?
• What have you learned about who you are and who you are becoming? Who God is and how He works?
• And what help and encouragement can you offer others through your story?

If you go through and answer these questions, we feel confident that you will be able to effectively share your story with others and we believe that amazing things will happen in your relationships when you do so!  

So the question is: who are you going to share your story with?