Stories to Remind Us...

The hero of Patrick Rothfuss' novel, The Wise Man's Fear, is from a band of traveling performers, proud gypsies who call themselves the Edema Ruh.  Some friends ask the protagonist to tell a story and so he tells them the tale of an old wandering beggar who stumbled upon a crossroads late one evening where several groups of travelers have set up camp.  The old man goes from campfire to campfire, hoping for a bite to eat and a seat by the fire - but each time he is denied or chased off.  Finally, the beggar comes to a band of wagons where he finds kindness and hospitality.  The old man begins to cry.  His hosts ask him what's wrong.


He replies, "I am a silly old man...  You have been kinder to me than anyone in years, and I am sorry I cannot repay you."

"We are the Edema Ruh.  The thing we value most is something everyone possesses....  You could tell us your story." (p. 284)

When the tale ends, the hero's friends are confused.  "Is that the end?...  It didn't end the way I thought it would," he said.

"What did you expect?"

"I was waiting to find out who the beggar really was.  I thought as soon as someone was nice to him, he would turn out to be Taborlin the Great.  Then he would give them his walking stick and a sack of money and...  I don't know.  Make something magical happen....  Old beggars in stories are never really old beggars."

"In real life old beggars are almost always old beggars," I pointed out.  "But I know what kind of story you two are talking about.  Those are stories we tell other people to enteratain them.  This story is different.  It's one we tell each other."

"Why tell us a story if it's not entertaining?"

"To help us remember.  To teach us --" I made a vague gesture -- "[who we are]." (p.286)

Stories are powerful.  They speak to deep places within us, reaching past the part of our brains that deal with interesting facts...  As Buechner says, stories reach down to the place inside of us where dreams are born.  (See Telling the Truth, p. 4)  Stories speak to the parts of us that define us.  We are a people of stories.  Our deepest connections with others are with those who get us - those who know our story, and whose story is in turn known by us.  Stories, the deep narratives, remind us who we are.

The Bible tells a story.  Sure it's not entirely narrative - it's full of poetry and wisdom literature, letters, laws and the preaching of the prophets.  But the book as a whole tells a story - it bears witness to a people's encounter with the living God.  (I am surely biased by my love of narrative, but whatever the Bible is, one has to admit that it does NOT read like a philosophy or theology text book.)


Some wonder why the all-powerful God of the universe would choose to reveal himself through ancient texts - or through stories instead of theological descriptions.  But I find it fitting that God's self revelation comes through narrative.  Stories speak to deeper realities, to complexities that challenge simplistic descriptions.  If you're describing a machine, then some sort of technical manual serves best.  Some churches try to offer a simplified technical manual version of God.  More than a few visions of the Almighty - even within the church today - envision a kind of a God who is little more than a cosmic automaton - producing prescribed consequences in response humanity's varied actions.


But the God of the Bible is something different - something terrible and wonderful and unpredictable...  The incredible witness of the Bible is that God is person.  Transcendent yet living...  God is person, the creator in real relationship with the created.  

Why am I a Christian?  One of the biggest reasons is here.  I fell in love with the story of the Bible.  I fell in love with the God to whom it bears witness.  A God of power and passion...  A creator who so deeply loved his creation that he became one of them, gave himself for them...  It's a story that speaks to me - that reminds me who I am.