Tell Stories
Tales About the World and What Matters
Stories are powerful. The power to create empathy, motivate to action, communicate truth and values and principles; the power to change lives, create and influence culture, to truly bring about change lies in the incredible power of stories, storytelling, and storytellers. And it is no surprise that some of the greatest revolutionaries the world has seen – whether Moses, the Carpenter’s son, or Shakespeare – were all great story tellers.
Stories respect human freedom more than any other vehicle of sharing ideas. When someone shares a story, they are offering an invitation to enter another world, and that invitation can be accepted or rejected. It is an invitation.
A law is a commandment. It must be obeyed. A policy has to be followed, otherwise consequences follow. But a story is an invitation to enter a new world. And if storytellers want others to accept their invitation, they have to hone their skills and get better at telling stories. The audience retains its freedom to engage or to leave. And no matter what medium, whether print, movies, music, or theaters, to only name a few of the way’s humans tell stories, the best storytellers know it’s their job to captivate an audience. No tyrant ever questions why the people don’t obey, they just release the power of the state upon their citizens, but storytellers know, if the audience doesn’t stay it’s not the audience’s fault, it’s the storytellers. We all have in us the desire for story, and if we’re not riveted by the story we’re listening to, we’ll move quickly to the next one, or even return to living our own.
Stories have the power to change the world, for better or worse. And thankfully, because stories always lie at the edge of rejection, they can be constantly refined and perfected. But their power to change people only comes when the people freely enter into the story and let its truths take root in their heart. This is the power of story. And the wisdom of God was not to come to us in scientific treatises, in laws and commandments, in obscure policies and procedures, but to come to us in story. A story of his love for us.
A law might change people for the better, but people have to conform to the law. Certain laws, like the “though shalt not kill” given to us in Moses’s story of the Exodus, force obedience. Good laws force good behaviors, and that is a good thing. But evil laws, like Pharoah’s laws of slavery and child sacrifice, they conform a culture to accepting evil as the norm. And that is an evil thing. Humans are malleable, humans are adaptable, and humans will adapt to survive, even if that means doing evil things like enslaving Hebrews or segregating people or killing children. God help us if the only laws that existed where human laws. But thank God, there is a divine law that spoke to the slaves in Egypt which was written on their hearts and gave them the strength to disobey the Pharaoh’s command. Those slaves had a higher law, a divine law, one that made their spines stiff and would not bend to the evil of their times. They would suffer the consequences of disobeying an evil law, if need be, because there was a greater authority than the powers and principalities of this world. And that authority was the God of the universe.
This God who came to his people in story, not law. As slaves in Egypt, they knew the stories that Moses would write down for them. Stories told across centuries about a good God who loved his people, who made promises to their forefathers that he would keep, and who had a land flowing of milk and honey special for them. The power of story got them through the tough times of evil laws. The power of story gave them better ideals than the ones that were right in Pharaoh’s own eyes. The power of story gave them the strength to disobey evil mandates and work for the greater good, the greater good of bring God’s truth and values and love to an enslaved world.
The stories of Moses touch on the most important themes of mankind – love, purpose, mission, call to adventure, knowledge of history, identity, culture, family, country, faith – and those stories planted important insights that every human must know to thrive, whether three thousand years ago or today, whether scientific or even more sublime, whether natural or supernatural.
The basic rudiments of a story are known to all – a description of events with a beginning, middle and end. That’s it. Donald Miller has one of the best formulas to define story – a (1) hero who (2) has a problem, and (3) meets a guide who (4) has a plan and (5) calls the hero to action, helping the hero to (6) avoid tragedy and instead (7) triumph against all odds. That simple formula, done well, moves people to action.
And it’s no wonder that stories are the center of the divine religions. The creator knows his creation. The designer knows his design. The maker knows what he has made. He knows stories are the best way to respect human freedom and yet draw them to higher truths. And so, even the laws and commandments are first wrapped in a story. They are simply a part of a larger story. The foundation of story must first be set before any desire for obedience can be instilled in the heart of mankind. A man is faithful to his wife not because he first took vows but because first, he loved. Out of that love, and the stories framing it, comes the vows that lead to obedience. God loves, and makes promises. And we have the opportunity to enter into that story, that great story of love and take our vows. It’s a beautiful story. Perhaps the greatest ever told.