The Story of God - And The Power Of Stories

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Recently I invited my good friend, Calix Lewis Reneau, a fellow Christian, filmmaker, and author, to write a devotional just for you about the power of telling stories and why we as humans need stories.  Over the years I've watched Calix talk about this subject and I really think he's gotten a real nugget of truth regarding the importance of stories to all of humanity.  It's why I believe more and more that Christian filmmakers need to focus less on crafting a great message and start focusing more on crafting a great story.  

I believe in this devotional Calix gets to the heart of what audiences who watch movies really are longing for and what they need.  I'm more convinced than ever before that why people love to watch films is because at its essence it's rooted in the need of people to experience a good story which brings order to the chaos in our broken world.  And it has something to do with a deeper thing God is doing corporately to humanity.  After reading this wonderful devotional that he wrote so beautifully, you will begin to understand why I love to call my good friend, Calix, The Professor.  

I'm currently reading through Joseph Campbell's excellent book "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" which  focuses on the recurring, common themes and common story-lines that all heroes share in the thousands of years of myths, legends, and religious stories of humanity.  It hammers home this message that Calix speaks to in his devotional - that we as humans (no matter what tribe or tongue)... need stories and are corporately inspired by the same types of themes.

Enjoy and be blessed,

Tom Swift

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The Story of God

By Guest Devotional Blogger 

Calix Lewis Reneau

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1, KJV)






"In The Beginning..."

That’s how the Story starts. It is the story of us; it is the story of them; 
it is the story of everything; it is the story of me; it is the story God is telling.

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There is much which divides humanity, which separates us into groups and factions and tribes. There are many religions, many cultures, many political positions. We're divided by class, by caste, by money, by distance, by language, by histories, by desires and by fears. We huddle together in our little monkey-spheres, those small groupings of people we connect with, fearful of the billions of others and the harm the universe seems focused on causing us. Everything we can see or experience tells us that death and destruction and evil and ruin are the only possible outcomes of our lives. And yet we hope.

Why?

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Because we are united in one peculiar way: every human is hungry for story. 
To see narrative play out, to understand why and what for. We need things to 
make sense in a creation that so often doesn’t seem to make sense. We need 
to believe in the face of the overwhelming crushing evidence claiming life 
is hopeless that it isn’t.

We know it isn’t, ironically, not because of the evidence, but because of 
the faith that is common to all mankind. Regardless of theology, ideology, 
history or belief, virtually every person who has ever lived has lived in 
hopeful faith against all odds. A faith that says “this life has meaning, 
these events have purpose, there is something bigger than myself and my 
immediate needs and wants and pains and desires that makes what I’m going 
through worthwhile.


That is why we tell stories.  We tell stories because stories empower our faith to go on.

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An innocent child dies suddenly; an evil man grows rich and powerful; the 
crops fail before a bitter winter; lovers are reunited after years. These 
things are just moments in time. There’s no compelling reason they should 
have reason. Why can’t we accept that they just are? After all, animals in 
nature around us don’t seem to be compelled to figure out why things happen. 
They just go on with their lives. They don’t seem to tell stories. Nature 
doesn’t seem to need stories.



Humans alone need story.



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Telling each other stories doesn’t make the world make sense, of course. 
Every story has holes, has reasons why it doesn’t work. Every story relies 
on coincidence, on happenstance, on deus ex machina, in order to play out 
satisfactorily. That’s why we tell them: it is the meaning in “it happened 
this way and not any other for a purpose” that gives story power, not just 
the events related in order. Stories are intrinsically about faith, about 
overlaying reason on the unreasonable.



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The greatest examples of human faith, even in Scripture, cry out “why?” and 
are not answered. Paul, in Romans chapter 9, explores this. He asks 
questions that don’t have any acceptable answer other than “the Author is 
telling the Story He wants to tell.” And Paul asks us to have faith that the 
Author’s story is the right one, not because it makes sense, but because the 
Author asks us to. It’s why the Author ends the Text of His Story – the 
written road map – with words of hope and promise, with no more tears, with 
the invitation of the Spirit and the Bride to joyfully “Come” to the end of 
His Story. He tells us the end of His Story so we can believe the Story He 
is writing in this moment right now by and through our lives – for good and 
for bad – has meaning, purpose and worth.



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That’s why we tell each other stories. Not because our stories are true; but 
because our stories, in their artificial pursuit of the happy ending, 
reflect the faith and confidence we innately have that the universe does 
make sense, that it is purposeful, and that all things will indeed work 
together for good for those who love Him – moreover, for those whom He 
loves – even though in most moments the world all around us seems chaotic 
and unplanned and random and without purpose.



Universal Pictures

We tell each other stories that make sense because we have to believe, in 
the core of us all, that the Author is telling a sensible and loving Story 
which has a happy ending to justify all of the struggles that come before.

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Calix Lewis Reneau served as a producer and screenwriter on the Tim Russ' comedy "A Night At the Silent Movie Theater" and a producer, co-writer, and co-director for the thriller "Canyon Road".  He is also the author of "Dancing with the Black Dog", a book that encourage folks who deal with clinical depression and the excellent book "Why I Hate Being a Christian" which deals with hypocrisy in the American Church.