Stories

Today is Wear TWLOHA day. I haven't posted about the organization TWLOHA much yet, other than to note a few quotes from the founder (and my personal hero) Jamie Tworkowski. I'm not sure why I haven't posted about it yet, other than the fact that it just hasn't really come up yet.

I love TWLOHA (To Write Love On Her Arms). For my readers that don't really know what that is, in a nut shell it is an organization that seeks to speak into the darkness of depression and to reach out to those dealing with self-mutilation and other similar addictions. It's an organization that I stand behind fully. I am passionate about their cause. If you want to know more about them, I'd encourage you to check out their website here. 

TWLOHA is encouraging their supporters to wear TWLOHA apparel today in an attempt to open doors and make opportunities to spread their message today. They are encouraging people to tell their stories. TWLOHA is all about stories. They talk a lot about the fact that you are a living story and your story is important.

All of this is not to simply state my support for an organization that I love, but to segue into what I've been wanting to post about today: the concept of story. Stories fascinate me. Perhaps it is because I am a writer and have an incredible love for words, but the fact that I am a living story is so amazing to me. Every day of my life is a new page, and I just think that's so cool. I am a living story, and that means that I have something worth telling people.

A few weeks ago, someone spoke in chapel about stories. I loved the sermon and look back at my notes often. Something that he pointed out was about who we're allowing to write our stories. Who has the pen? Who is in control? I know that often times, I try to be the writer of my own story. I try to take control, and I always fail. I always screw it up. But I've found that when I release control and allow God to write my story, He is faithful. Psalm 139:16 says "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." God has already written our stories. I just think that's so cool. God already has this incredible story written out for us, and we just have to walk in that story and let him take the pen.

One thing I've been praying over today as Wear TWLOHA day is Psalm 139:11-12. " If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,' even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you." I've been praying that stories will be told, that people would have the boldness to stand up with shaking knees and voices and tell their friends that they are currently, or have in the past, struggled with things like self-mutilation. I've been praying that through that, the hope of Christ would be revealed and darkness would be defeated. I've been praying against the strongholds of depression and addiction. I've been praying that lives would be changed and healed today.

I want to encourage you to tell your story. It is worth telling and you have been given it for a reason. No matter what mistakes you've made or things you've struggled with, God has a reason for your story. I believe that telling our stories will change others. I believe that that's why God gave us these stories. I believe that if we are not telling our stories we are not allowing God to work through the story He has given us.

I know it's hard to tell your story sometimes. It's hard to stand up and talk to someone that's struggling with something you've once struggled with and say that you've been there too. It's scary. It's not an easy thing to do, but I know we should. I know I should.

I don't freely tell my story. I don't just open up to everyone about what I've struggled with in the past. It's not something I usually share. But I've realized that I am robbing God of the ability to work through me when I refuse to tell the story He's given me. When I refuse to reach out to the girl downtown with scars up and down her arms and tell her that I know there is hope because I have personally been delivered from struggles with depression and self-mutilation, I am making my story useless. I went through those things for no reason if I don't use my story to reach others for Christ.

So today, I will tell my story. I will be vulnerable. And I will be very, very afraid. A lot of tears will be shed today, by me, and by many others in the world. But knowing that there are countless others out there wearing TWLOHA apparel and standing with me, speaking stories of hope and truth, makes it a little bit easier. Because others tell their stories, I will have the boldness to tell mine. Because Christ gave me this story, I will make Him known through it.