Luke Study #130 – Telling Our Story Well

The Gospel Of Luke

Luke 12:41-48 (CEV)

41 Peter asked Jesus, “Did you say this just for us or for everyone?”

42 The Lord answered:

Who are faithful and wise servants? Who are the ones the master will put in charge of giving the other servants their food supplies at the proper time? 43 Servants are fortunate if their master comes and finds them doing their job. 44 A servant who is always faithful will surely be put in charge of everything the master owns.

45 But suppose one of the servants thinks that the master won’t return until late. Suppose that servant starts beating all the other servants and eats and drinks and gets drunk. 46 If that happens, the master will come on a day and at a time when the servant least expects him. That servant will then be punished and thrown out with the servants who cannot be trusted.

47 If servants are not ready or willing to do what their master wants them to do, they will be beaten hard. 48 But servants who don’t know what their master wants them to do will not be beaten so hard for doing wrong. If God has been generous with you, he will expect you to serve him well. But if he has been more than generous, he will expect you to serve him even better.

Telling Our Story Well

When I was a kid I really liked watching Full House. Simple, predictable, with a fairly straightforward way of resolving things, the show was filmed in typical 1990’s sit-com style: A sound stage version of each room with the “front wall” cut away to allow filming to take place.

This was the standard way of doing shows back in the day, but it meant that the stationery camera provided only a singular perspective on what was going on.

One of my favourite shows recently has been Downton Abbey. Most of it is shot on location in a huge old heritage building. The cameras can spin around a group of characters. They can run after them down a hallway, follow a character’s site line or narrow the depth of focus to one single point of importance. The camera now has a lot of different stories and perspectives to offer.

Which in turn means that the director can tell more complex stories, with more actors, more diversity of locations, more nuance and greater depth.

The technology we have, and the choices directors make in terms of their locations and cinematography, significantly change the stories they can tell and the ways in which we understand those stories.

And more and more I am coming to think that is true for us as well.

We all tell stories about ourselves and about the people around us every day. Sometimes we tell those stories more honestly than others. Sometimes we only see one side of the issue, or our camera gets stuck rooted to one or way of doing things.

But if we don’t tell our stories honestly, we can miss out on the good of our lives.

We might get stuck focused on the traffic we are in and miss the fact that it’s a beautiful summer day.

We might get stuck looking at the piles of toys on the floor and dishes in the sink and forget how many excited, creative minds and bodies we fed over the course of a summer day.

We might get stuck worrying about the bills and the income and miss out on all of the laughter and joy and provision that surrounds us in spite of what the bank balance would suggest was true.

I think that serving Jesus well is going to require that we tell our story well.

When we tell our story well, we are filled with love and joy and peace and patience that easily overflows into kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control.

When we tell our story well, we are filled with the knowledge that we are not alone, and in that awareness we become better able and more interested in extending community and connection to others.

When we tell our story well, we come to see that the God who asks us to serve Him has given so much to us that serving can become a joy instead of a chore.Journal Questions:

  1. What would happen if you could direct your story from a new angle today?
  2. What options might you use to change how the story played out?
  3. How could you change the angle or perspective of the camera?
  4. What about the focal depth?
  5. What about the background music?
  6. If you wanted to tell a story of God’s generosity to you, what would need to change?

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