I Love to Tell the Story

On Thursday I got to spend some time with a dear friend who lost his wife in the earthquake in Haiti. It was wonderful and terrible to talk to him. One of the things J. said was that while he was under the rubble of the building, waiting to be rescued, not knowing if he ever would be, there were two songs that kept coming to his mind. One was "I Love to Tell the Story." (Here's a link to the lyrics; the link plays the music as well.)

In the evening, we attended a camp meeting service. We sang a hymn, and it was "I Love to Tell the Story." I couldn't even sing most of it.

These days when I talk to people I haven't seen in a while, the story I am telling is about the earthquake. Everyone wants to know where we were, and how it was. As those around me sang, I thought about that. Am I telling the right story?

Yes, I think I am. Because as J. and I told and retold our stories to each other - the parts we love to tell and the parts that make us cry - we were telling the story in the hymn. It is "the story of unseen things above,/ Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love." Even for J. it is, even though he lost the love of his life.

We talked about how we don't understand, about how it is all too confusing to fit into our theology. But about how we know that no matter how terrible it is, that God will bring good from it, and is bringing good from it.

Here on my blog, I have told and retold the story of what happened to us, and I don't want my story to be that I was in an earthquake and that it ruined my life. That's not a story I love to tell. But through all the wretchedness and misery that we've already seen and that we will see in the future, the story is that Jesus has met us, and loved us through His people, and that He will keep walking with us as the story continues.

P.S. I met a reader at the service, too! She said, "Are you the Ruth from Haiti that has a blog? I read your blog!" Hi, Hope! Thanks for reading!