I recently returned from a staff retreat. Our assignment was simple. We were to tell our life story up to that point. That’s it. There was no book to read, no DVD to listen to, no leadership principles discussed. It was the easiest and yet the most difficult retreat I had ever had to prepare for.
You see, my life is more than a consecutive series of dots on a timeline. It is a confusing jumbled combination of 50 years of experiences that have shaped, contributed, and influenced who I am today. There may be a part of me that has always been and not simply a product of my environment or my upbringing; but I am neither intelligent nor eloquent enough to even begin to separate the two. I am a person that is fascinatingly unique, while at the same time, very, very common. I share along with all of you both the wonder and the revulsion of being fully human.
When telling someone your own personal history, you have the ability to recreate the events of the past to fit the audience you’re speaking to and, of course, put yourselves in the best light possible. Even if we don’t distort our history, we give ourselves the liberty to edit certain events of the past like deleted portions of a film that never make it to the theater.
When I am both author and editor of the story and I am the main character, I get to choose the image I want to present. That’s the beauty of editing. I get to tell the story that I want told. Now, in some cases, that’s not a bad thing - it just is. In many situations it’s just plain smart. Like the famous line from the movie A Few Good Men, many people can’t handle the truth.
In asking a recent worship team class if they had the challenge of writing their own personal life experiences, what version would you give. Would it be the “G” rated version, the “PG”, PG13, R or even NC17 version? I followed it up with another question. How would you determine what parts of your story you would omit and for what reasons? They came up with several conclusions. 1. What is the reason for telling the story? 2. Is it the right time and place? 3. And, most importantly, who is the audience?
How about you? Have you ever told the unedited version of your story to anyone; even the parts you would rather omit?
The take away from this retreat was nothing short of amazing. I will never forget it. We were all changed. It’s difficult to say who was affected more, the person telling their story or the audience who was privileged to hear it. Both experienced something that I cannot adequately begin to explain. It was a retreat I will never forget.
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