By the Way: The stories we tell ourselves

By REV. DR. NANCY COCKS on March 4, 2022.

These days are filled with anxious stories. Russian attacks in Ukraine. Anger and frustration with our own governments. Conspiracy theories about what’s right and what’s wrong. Whichever side you take in any conflict, the story you tell yourself has the power to enrage or engage you. The stories we tell ourselves influence our actions.

So here’s a good news story from the Medicine Hat and Area Refugee Team. MHART has been so grateful for donations to help us reunite a South Sudanese family. Five of six sponsorships were covered by January! So just ten days ago, we launched a final appeal for that sixth family member. Focusing on the grandmother, we reached out through a News article and letters to local churches. Loonies for Lent! Spare change to spare a life. Dig deep as Easter approaches. Still, I was imagining a spring full of garage sales to reach our target.

Yet, this past week, a family in our area offered to cover all the remaining cost themselves. Wow! Just like that, our target is complete. MHART is deeply grateful to every single donor throughout this appeal. Your gifts, large, small and in between, make it possible to reunite a family that has faced danger and despair, and offer them a new beginning.

Every day we hear stories about the economy that make us nervous. But what story do generous people tell themselves in anxious times? They remember stories of kindness they’ve received. Faced with someone’s desperate need, they tell themselves about what they have to share. Generosity tells stories of hope in the face of discouragement. Of possibility turned into action. Jesus’ stories are filled with generosity, with welcome to outcasts, courage in the face of conflict, and risk that cost him everything. His story inspires ours.

What story are you telling yourself these days? Be sure it includes the possibility of surprising generosity – for you and through you – creating hope in the world God loves even in times like these.

Rev. Dr. Nancy Cocks is a retired professor and Presbyterian Minister

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