Christ Lutheran Church - Valencia, CA

Writing the Story of God in Your Life - Helen Barlow
Posted on: 09/30/2008

Writing the Story of God in Your Life
Excerpts for this summer's workshop

This past summer, Patror Joe led a wonderful workshop entitled "Writing the Story of God in Your Life". The purpose of the workshop was to guide interested members through the process of creating a "spiritual biography". The work that was created was both inspirational and instructional, as it became clear that God had a hand in writing each one of our stories, no matter how painful, confusing, joyful, or exciting. what also became abundantly clear was that each of us has a story to tell. No matter how trivial or mundane it may seem to yoi, someone will find your story absolutley fascinating. We found that even if we did not recognize it at the time, God wan in, with and under our lives, guiding us to places and people, circumstances and situations, that brought each of us to where we are today.

We all encouraged Pastor Joe to offer ths workshop again in the future. I would urge you to attend, even if you feel you have no ab=ility to wrote creatively. god has a plan for each of us, sometimes we just need to recognize it.

Here are excerpts from some of the faith stories:

Helen Barlow

I had been in college only seven weeks when one event had a tremendous effect on my life. After a football game I was hit by a car as a pedestrian. I was seriously injured with both legs broken and my front teeth fractured. I was to be taken in to surgery, but was insistent that first I had to see Gil Allen (my pastor) and have him pray with me. My spiritual life was still not part of my parents' lives even though I was very close to my dad and he was my "rock" in so many other ways.

During my recovery, I had plenty of time to think and reflect on the strong message I felt was coming from God. I could have so easily been killed if I had landed impacting a different part of my body. I felt that God's message was that there would be purposes in my life where my life would become entwined with that of another in a way that only I would be able to fulfill their need. I prayed that I would always be open to God ia a way so as not to miss these opportunities.

The first one was pretty immediate. My mother had become ill, we learned, becasue of a chemical imbalance. She had never needed to be hopsitalized as she had a misdiagnosed medical probelm, not a mental illness. However, over time it had come to affect her mental health because her sense of self-worth and confidence were practically gone. But there I was, her eldest child, legs wrapped up in plaster, unable to bear my weight, needing to be cared for. My dad had to work and my sister was in school. Mom had to be the one to take care of my needs. I learned more humility and she learned hwo to be a confident, responsible person again. by the time I was able to walk and return to college, we were both new people. god had worked a wonderful miracle. My mom and I both healed while He helped us heal each other.

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