Your story matters because God attends to every moment of your life, so you should too.

Most of us don’t think we have a story to tell. I didn’t either. Even though I lived on an island in Alaska and I worked in commercial fishing, I thought, who would care about my life? Every time I looked up at the night sky and the vast cosmos overhead, I wondered, how could God possibly care about me and all the tiny details of my existence? 

But I was wrong. God’s word assures us that he sees the fall of a sparrow. He’s numbered the hairs on our head. He goes after the one hundredth sheep, wandering and lost. He sees us. He knows us in every detail because of his love for us. 

He knows how it felt when you held your mother’s hand after her fall, and how you had to argue her onto the gurney, all the while knowing that you are not one of her favorite children. But you did it anyway because you love her even if she does not love you. He knows how you’ve cared for your daughter all these years, feeding her every bite of food, the way you sing Beatles songs to one another. And remember the time you climbed that mountain near sunset and a hawk sat in a tree in silhouette and your son lost his shoe over the cliff and you ended up piggybacking him down the rest of the trail while you both sang “Deep and Wide”?

God knows. God sees all of this, and he deeply cares about it all. Since the One who is Running All Things including galaxies takes care to notice lost sheep, dying sparrows and falling hair, maybe you should notice too. I’ve been writing and teaching stories from my life now for more than thirty years. I know for sure that writing is a form of attention, a form of listening to God through even the most mundane activities of our lives. 

WRITING PROMPT: Create the habit of listening to your own life. Keep a small notebook with you to record at least one memorable moment a day. Start now: What memories is God bringing to mind right now? Choose one and describe briefly

PRAYER: Lord, open my eyes to your presence, to your love, even in the most routine moments of my day. Help me see what you see. Help me believe what you say about me, that you love me and that you’re present with me in every moment of my day. Give me confidence to start looking at my life as you see it---as of infinite worth.