Your story matters because through it, God can heal your past.

In my Alaska memoir, I had plenty of adventures and danger to report, but I wrote for deeper reasons. Some of those years were painful and confusing. I was a newlywed trying to fit into a new family. There were eight of us sharing a tiny remote island in Alaska, cut off from the rest of the world. At night, my husband and I climbed a rickety ladder up to a tiny loft in an old warehouse where we slept. By day we worked long hours out on stormy seas. Every day, my husband and I tried---and failed—to work together harmoniously. At the end of the first ten years, I had a journal full of hard memories. What could I do with them? 

I knew I had to write. I was looking for wisdom, yes, but I also hoped for healing. I wrote about my own experience first, as honestly as I could. Then I began to write to understand my husband’s perspective. And I wanted a scriptural perspective as well. Slowly, page by page, I began to see larger truths. Clarity began to come, and with that clarity came healing and compassion. Later, in another book, I began to do the same with my father. Those pages and essays eventually became a book chronicling my journey of forgiveness toward my father. 

Through writing our stories, we not only gain wisdom, but we have another chance to reclaim and heal the past. Every time we lock up an event in the Closet of Forgetting and Denial, we’re missing out on what God wants to do with us and with that experience. The apostle Paul tells us that “all things work together for the good of those he loves.” So it is. God always desires to bring good out of pain and loss. This doesn’t mean slapping a rainbow on the end of your stories. Often healing begins simply by telling the truth, by bringing language---which is bringing light—into the dark. 

Writing Prompt: Choose a difficult event from your timeline that you haven’t written about. Write what happened first from your own experience. Write honestly, freely, including whatever emotions come. Often there’s a sense of freedom in simply speaking the unnamed. If you’re able to go further, write about this event again, but include the perspective of the other person and the perspective of Scripture. You’ll be surprised at how the words under our own hands can lead to deeper truths, and with them, comes healing.

(NOTE: This exercise should not be used for events that involve violence, trauma or abuse. If you’ve experienced any of these, please seek professional help.)

PRAYER

Father, Lord, I believe that you desire to transform all things in our lives, including the hard things, into “good.” You have already led me into further wisdom as I’ve written into my past. Now, as I write, Help me to throw off the heavy yoke I’m carrying. Lead me into your rest. Lead me toward healing. For your honor and glory, amen.