What Is Your Story?

By Paul Roberts

What is your story?

More specifically, what type of story is your story? If you were to sit down to write the tale of your life, how would you categorize it? You could call it a memoir, or an autobiography. But dig a bit deeper. Would it be a comedy? A tragedy? A bit of both? How about an epic poem? A parable? An apocalyptic tale? Or maybe “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying… nothing.”

There are lots of choices. I would like to propose, during this season of advent, that yours be a gospel story.

I’ve been relying on one of the Muses of ancient Greek mythology for some direction and inspiration for my blog posts the last several weeks. However, since I was more consistent with my morning journal time the last several days, the cogs of my imagination were well oiled and I didn’t need to call on any of them. Inspiration this week came from my sermon deadline (it was my turn to preach on Sunday, the second Sunday of Advent), from my lovely, encouraging wife, and from Doug the Elf.

In case you missed your chance to meet Doug the Elf this last weekend, he was the character I played on the boards at the Sixth Street Theater in the show Ho, Ho, Ho, Santa’s Got the Blues. It is not unusual for a character to take over my thoughts a bit when I am spending so much time with him, and when the character’s time on stage coincides with my turn to preach, he (or she) invariably gets some sort of shout out during the sermon.

I resisted the urge last Sunday for Doug to make an appearance during my sermon, but I told a bit of his story. In my portrayal of this rather insignificant character, Doug the Elf was distinctly one dimensional. He welcomed patrons into the lobby of the theater in his high, squeaky, lisping voice and his giddy laugh with a resounding “Merry Christmas!” Some people were greeted by name and given the friendliest of hugs. During the show, when some of the other elves were moved to tears by a sad song, or chagrined by Mrs. Claus flirting with Santa, Doug just kept on smiling, mostly oblivious to the struggles going on around him. Doug is an incessantly happy, incandescent extrovert, overwhelmed by his excitement for Christmas morning. Paul is not. Doug’s story is not a gospel story. Paul’s story is definitely a gospel story.

So, what do I mean by a gospel story?

I expect that the majority of my readers have enough of an understanding of Christian terminology to know that when scripture talks about Jesus going about “preaching the gospel of the kingdom” that the word gospel can be translated “good news.” But scripture also tells us that the people that Jesus spent the most time talking to were “the downtrodden, the poor,” “widows and orphans”, people “living in darkness who have seen a great light.” Doug the Elf, as I played him, lives only in the light of Christmas morning. I don’t think that qualifies as a gospel story.

A gospel story, a good news story, by definition must include and address the darkness that is found all around us. The Christmas story, the story of Advent, is the first chapter in a long narrative full of ups and downs, twists and turns, telling the full story of Jesus the Christ Child, Son of God, Savior…and Paul Kelly, the third child, son of Burt and Pat, husband to Carol Lynn, who begat Molly, Zoe, and Cosette…

I think I’ll stick with telling my story, a gospel according to Paul.

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What is your story? Are you writing your story? Take some time during this Advent/Christmas season and write about what you know best…you.
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