Years ago in Chicago, we had a friend who, on someone’s birthday, would put them on the spot and ask: “So, now that you are x years old, what do you have to say for yourself?”
I came to love the exercise, to watch others take account and share a bit of their distilled wisdom.
My birthday was this week, and my brother challenged me to answer the beloved question on the blog. So, for 2021, here is my answer.
It has been of great value to me to discover my story, to understand who I am and how I tend to engage the world.
It has also been of great value to me to discover our stories, to understand the narratives of the tribes of which I find myself a part.
And it is of ultimate value to me to consistently lay both my story and our stories into the narrative of The Story, the mystery of a loving God. This movement saves my story and our stories from becoming idols over which I obsess.
Put another way, kenosis before The Story returns me to my story and our stories with power, clarity, and the freedom to love, tuned to what is of ultimate value.
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