The View From Here

by Grace Anderson, covenanted minister of MPUC

As a chaplain, I love hearing people’s stories. It is in their stories that I hear people working to make sense of their life and the world around them. In these stories, I am reminded of faith in our lives and how God is present in times of challenge and in times of celebration. It is a sacred time. As I have learned, it is not a time to fix someone’s hurts but to be present to them.

Sometimes we experience our own pain in listening to another’s pain. Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, reminds us, "the practice of sacredly holding our own pain prepares us to practice holding a space of compassion for others. 'It doesn’t matter if we’ve had their experience. What matters is that we can listen, and that we can listen well enough that their experience can be healed and transformed.” That is the power of storytelling.

If you were to narrate the story of your life for a movie, which stories would you pick to tell? Would the stories include your faith story or your understanding of God? Would the stories be about triumphs as well as struggles? These stories you share tell the listener what you value,

who you are and what is important to you. You may be surprised to find that these stories may bring healing to both you, the story teller, as well as those you trust with your sacred story.