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Power of story

Writer's picture: EkanemEkanem

Updated: Jan 29

As a result of globalisation, the need to understand individual stories is so much more palpable. There is a huge need to understand differences so we live less in segregated communities. For globalisation of the world to work effectively our stories need to be owned and shared.


When we look into the history of paintings - famous paintings by famous artist or even observe the mundane doodling of a toddler to while the time away, we see pictures that tell a story. Fundamentally, that is what a portrait does. A portrait tells a story of a thousand’s words in a split second. With a single gaze, a flash thought, the portrait can begin to unravel the past, the present and a future without any words being spoken. The power of story is so evident in paintings and specifically for me in portraits that portray the person, the character, the being.


When we each look on a portrait we each see something different. We each have our own unique ability to craft, to colour, to manoeuvre through the strokes on the canvas. This also means that sometimes we may not see the same story and therefore we do not tell the same story but that does not mean it isn't one and the same.


The Three dimensions of Story


I spent sometime with my nieces over the Christmas holidays, three of them aged 4 (twins) and 7 sat down round a table one evening in between a number of playful distractions to draw a portrait of me. Each one came up with a completely different heartfelt expression of what they thought I looked like at that point in time. It was hilarious yet heart warming.


Consider the first four books of the New testament, the Gospels - Matthew , Mark, Luke and John. These historical records gave account of the same person yet told from different perspectives perhaps because the experience was different for each, the line of sight was different for each but none of that negated the richness of the individual stories told.



There are usually three dimensions to a story, its what makes it complete. Without them we do not have compelling stories, that truly teach and give profound insight. Consider studying every story book or novel you have read. There are three dimensions presented:

  • The past or history

  • The present or the now

  • The future or vision


The Power of the past

History provides a path to a past for better understanding, not condemnation or reproach but for understanding. Again it depends on how you choose to see it. Understanding helps bred patience. Patience is required in learning who we are, in navigating uncertainty, difficult relationships and breaking strongholds that might try to diminish us.


Have you taken time to understand you? Have you taken time to understand the most important people in your life?

 

When we tell stories we do not simply recall history we grow in understanding. Yet with history we do not want or need to spend too much time there. Someone said, life is 10% what "happened" to you and 90% what you do about it. That suggests that 10% of my story is in my past, its already happened and the remaining 90% is made up of my present and the future. That suggests dwelling too hard or long on the past doesn't always help.


The Power of the present

When our story began, our portrait began to take shape as well and with every choice we make that portrait manifest. I like to think of this materialisation of my portrait as a partnership with God. He guides gently, he stirs carefully seeing past, present and future in ways I cannot. The choice to follow his leading is still mine. I still have freedom to choose.


"Choosing is our present decision in crafting, in weaving and making the most of what life presents to us."


"It is hard to dream, to envision or imagine when we do not live the present. Telling our stories well is also about living the present well."


We tell stories to illuminate the journey, the past the present and the future. When we paint the past we reminisce, when we paint the present, we live and when we paint the future, we dream. The painters dreams are full of your future and that future is determined to a very large extent by how you choose today.


The art of choosing is a potent aspect of our present, it is a potent aspect of whether we live well. How are you choosing today? What motivates those choices?


The Power of the future

We tell stories to relive the past, we tell stories for entertainment, to make belief but far greater that these things we tell stories so we can envision, imagine, dream. We tell stories because we have been given this enormous capacity to create.


Many of us would love to live in the future, that is, dream all day. Yet that isn't smart either. Certainly spend sufficient time envisioning your future but there is work to be done to get you there.


When we experience hard times and challenges, the thought of tomorrow gives us hope and so the future is a very important place. It isn't only a place of hope but a place for crystallisation.

The way to crystallise your story in the future is with good planning and a mindset that understands anything can happen along the way to the future you have envisioned. For me staying alert and trusting the master storyteller is crucial to my journey and looking to the future.

 


The Power of choice in your story


Many might argue we do not "really" have freedom to choose - is this true?


As I consider some of the choices I have made on my journey to unveiling my portrait, many things come to mind including the following:

  • Knowing my point of view (POV) - From what or whose perspective do you tell your story. Why? I love to write and I've read books on story structure a couple of times, i have also read other books over the years. POV features all the time in how the story is told. Its interesting how the impact of the story changes simply because of the point of view. POV could make all the difference in whether I succeed of fail, whether I win or lose, whether you stay or go. As I write or paint or simply create, I consider whose perspective I see my unfolding from.

  • Travel - Dreams and visions are powerful vehicles of transportation that enable us craft our unique story, they should never be undermined. We must first develop an ability to travel. Many times this travel needs to happen in our minds first, we dream and envision in our minds eye and then we manifest that dream on the outside. Sometimes travel is a physically experience where we go from one place to another over a significant distance. Ruth and Naomi travelled a long distance between Moab and Bethlehem, arriving just as the barley harvest was beginning, such an opportune time in the history of this nation (coming out of a famine). This journey completely changed both their stories. Abraham had to travel in his mind when God ask him to look at the stars. he imagined a future where his seed was prolific and filled the earth before he ever started that journey physically. Have you ever wondered about a journey you might need to take, daunting or costly as it might seem, in order to change your story.

  • Know your rights - Standing firm in our identity is so important in the choices we make. Knowing the rights we have as an individual. When Tamar the widow of Er found herself in a pickle she remembered the Levirate marriage rights in which she had been married and you evoked that right by taking Judah her father in law to bed. Her choices were very unconventional but there were also grounded on what she knew to be her rights within a covenant she had made.

  • Act on it - Tamar did not simply rest in the knowledge of her rights, she waited for the right time and acted on it. Her story reminds me of the silent attendant in so many stories. "Grace". Grace made it possible for what she hoped for to happen in the way she hoped.

  • Wait for it - The greatest story were not birth overnight, there were always seasons of waiting. After Tamar laid with her father in law, she had to wait to ensure she had conceived and when that was confirmed she waited to be absorbed of her "so called" crime. She could have been killed but her evidence saved her. The staff of Judah was her evidence that he had laid with her. That must have been the most excruciating wait of her life. The years of abuse at the mercy of Judah's son must have taught her a lot about perseverance and waiting. Many things happen in a season of waiting - the most important thing I think birth in waiting seasons is character. My seasons of waiting for help in areas I felt deficient always transformed me. It transformed my thinking , my endurance, my faith and more important my character.


What are some of things that have enabled you to change or transform on the journey?


What are the things that have enabled you write your story well?


What are the things that have been fuel for your story?


I have no idea what your story might look like right now or what you are waiting for or what you might have already envisioned for your life but I want to encourage you that there is more, there is always more.


You and I access that more through the choices we make every day in writing our stories. These stories are knit together more eloquently when we make those choices giving honestly expression to the past, the present and the future.


Be blessed!

 


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