What Story Do You Want to Tell?

Share via:

I don’t often ask you to do this, but today I really want to encourage you to try an experiment with me.  It’s a three step experiment.

Here’s the first step:  I want you to try and think ahead to next year at this time.  Imagine yourself one year from now.  Maybe you’re sitting in the same office chair or the same patio chair at Starbucks.

Can you do it?  Can you see yourself, one year in the future?  That’s the first step…but it’s just the beginning.

The second step, so important, is to think about all that happened over the last year.  Remember…you’re one year in the future from now.  Can you see yourself there? Can you think back and begin to see all the things that happened…over the last year.

The third step, and this is the key to the exercise, is to think about the story you’d like to tell about what happened in the last year.  Can you see what thinking this way might make possible?  Be as descriptive as you can.  Pull a team into the discussion if you’d like.  Get off by yourself if it helps.  Either way, think about the detailed story you’d like to tell about what happened in the last year.  By the way, this is preferred future kind of thinking.

Got it?  Can you picture it?  Can you describe it?  This is soooo important!

As you know by now, I love a great question.  I was listening to the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast over the weekend, doing my best to beat my time for a three mile walk, and almost stopped in my tracks when I heard Andy’s question.  Here’s the question that Andy asked:

What story do I want to tell?  …when this is in the rear view mirror…what story do I want to tell?  Courage in Leadership

I love that question!  It immediately made sense to imagine myself at some point down the road, telling the story of what happened at Canyon Ridge in the fall of 2012.  I can see it.  I can imagine the number of groups that launched.  I can see the faces of the hosts who invited neighbors and friends to join their group.  I can easily imagine the weekend as new believers are baptized with their group members cheering them on.  I can imagine the stories being told in group after group about “how different our families are since Jesus became real to us.”

What story do I want to tell?  I want to tell the story of how Las Vegas is different because of the way God used hundreds of new hosts who invited friends and family, neighbors and co-workers to join in a simple study of a life-changing idea.

What story do you want to tell?  And will you do the things that lead to there?  You can.  It begins the moment you begin to rehearse the story you want to tell.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email