The Fifth Dimension - Witness Part 1

I haven't written for a while because we have been wrapping up the financial stewardship project. You can read about that at fumcaustin.org. Now about that word, witness. During Extravagant Generosity we referred to it by the less intimidating name of storytelling. I find that term more Biblical anyway. Jesus went about doing good, but he also went about telling stories and left the hearer to discern the point of the story for him or herself.

For me, here's the scary thing about storytelling. If I am to tell a story about how I have been transformed, I have to start with who I was before I can get to who I am, and I'm not really prepared to tell you who I was. I'm not prepared to take off this mask I wear today and show the real me who has struggled and continues to struggle through all the mistakes of my life. Storytelling also carries the implication that my story is worth telling and that I have some special truth to impart through my story. I'm not willing to say that I'm that important. I'd rather read a lot, glean the meaning, and report that on to all of you. When I was a professional writer interviewing people for articles I would always tell them every person is an interesting story, it's my job to help you learn how to tell that story. Why, I wonder, do I exempt myself from that statement? 

You're going to read a bunch of quotes from one of my favorite writers, Richard Rohr, over the next few weeks. Here's the first:

"Good religion is always about seeing rightly: “The lamp of the body is the eye; if your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light,” as Jesus says in Matthew 6:22. How you see is what you see. And to see rightly is to be able to be fully present—without fear, without bias, and without judgment. It is such hard work for the ego, for the emotions, and for the body, that I think most of us would simply prefer to go to church services." Amen brother. 

First step to telling my story is to be fully present in my life, to look at it with the same compassion, humor, and love, that I hope God takes when viewing it. First step is for me to accept my own story and see it rightly.