In campfire light my two grandsons lean back to listen to their grandfather spin yarns. Stories line their life experience. Through them they have learned lessons as well as the values of the storytellers.

   Jesus understood this. His life story & his parables inform us every day. 

   Master storytellers are master chefs. They mix the finest ingredients in artful ways: Spice, but not so much it burns the tongue. Tastes that thrill Life's palate. Love that burns away Fear's toxins. 

   The best stories are not told in tales of pure violence or in Hallmark cards. The story of Jesus' death is hardly sweet. It opens what Richard Rohr calls "the necessary hole in the soul" & then fills it with the hope we must have to survive.

  How we describe our suffering determines not whether we are cured but whether we are healed. Self-compassion is as important as other-person compassion. 

   Thus, there can never be too much mercy because mercy is the fruit of forgiveness. There can never be too much love because love is God's light.

   Both are free. Yet, they are often withheld as if the spending of them would bankrupt the donor.

   Love's double blessings flow to giver as well as receiver. Jesus understood that his sacrifice was the only hope of healing our spirit's most tender opening. 

   Of course, most stories are not so dramatic. But, as master spoken word artist Minton Sparks teaches, every story we tell to ourselves is attitude-shaping. 

   And even small tales shared in firelight can open souls to starlight. 

-Erie Chapman

Photograph by Erie