Survival Guide

April 20, 2021

“One day you will tell your story of how you overcame what you went through and it will be someone else’s survival guide.”

When a dear Christian sister posted this recently, its significance struck me. We often ask God why we must go through the difficulties we encounter, why he doesn’t just make it all go away. I think the answer is in part because we don’t live just unto ourselves, but for one another. The Bible is filled with stories of people who overcame; they often failed and fell short, but in refusing to give up, they overcame. We read their stories and are encouraged, but often forget that those stories are still being written today.

Chuck Swindoll said something today that underscores the importance of our stories. He said stories are pictures that become mirrors that become windows. We read or hear the story—a picture of what God is doing. We hold it up and if we look, we can see ourselves somewhere in that story. If as James says, we look into the mirror of God’s Word (his stories), we have a choice as to whether or not we make changes according to what we see. I know when I read these stories, more often than not I see things in me that need to change. If I follow through, then the mirror that I held before me begins to become a window through which I see others and the world.

If we tell our story of God’s grace for those times we went through the valley of the shadow of death, the listener can hold it up and perhaps see himself in it. If he then makes the changes needed, that story can become a window through which he beholds an entirely new life. Our story becomes their survival guide.