So, in my last blog entry, I talked about the use of the word story and how for some folks (myself included at one point) the term leaves a bad taste in the mouth when applied toward scripture.  But scripture is of course rooted in story, a story of redemption and in the end, by God's grace, we are part of that story.

And when we know the context, when we know the story, we are able to participate more fully in it and be inspired by it.  This is also too with stories of how God has worked in individual lives.  Here's an example:

We all know the great hymn, 'Amazing Grace' right?  Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see."  That's our story, right?  In some way, we have all experienced that amazing grace somehow. 

But consider the story of the writer of the hymn, and its richness comes forth even more.  Amazing Grace was written by a British minister, Rev. John Newton.  Newton was known in his time (latter half of the 1700's) as an 'evangelical enthusiast', which was not a complimentary term in the very proper and sober Puritan and Anglican circles of Great Britain.  Newton became quite famous in his lifetime and was an inspiration for many.

But before Newton had become part of the story of redemption in Jesus Christ, he had another story.  He had for many years been the captain of a slave ship.  He had participated in the brutal shipping of African slaves from modern day Ghana to the West Indies - had been in charge of the packing of human beings like livestock, side by side for months on end in the filthy holds of ships - he had been responsible for brutal suffering and death of many people - he had been responsible for beatings, separation of families, the trafficking of human beings - the slave trade.

Author Rob Bell writes how participation in this sort of thing is demoralizing and dehumanizing for the victim and even more so for the victimizer.  They become numb to the despair and desolation, the suffering.  They become hopeless, the guilt is stuffed and for many they don't think that they can ever be made right from it.  Their life becomes cruel . . . hopeless . . .  wretched. 

But Newton was encountered with the grace and freedom of the gospel, and by the power of the Spirit he understood and believed.  So when he writes 'Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me", he's not just being poetic, he is speaking from the depth of who he is, from his guts.  He was wretched, hopeless, lost, and that grace of God was so amazing that it reached into his world, where he was lost and found him and restored sight to his blind eyes.  Praise God for Newton's story.  It is his story, but it is also our story.  Because we are all part of the story of God's Amazing grace given freely to all through Jesus.