I really have to vow to
just let any stories be used to heal and to bless.
If I'm going to tell any story, it has to be to heal and to bless.
And not about maintaining a personality identity or trying to
polish and adore another personality identity.
I had this experience with my
grandmother Lillian, who
as she got up in years, further and further, she was diagnosed with dementia.
But often times, she would just go back into a certain period of time,
like in the
19 teens or the 1920s, and particularly,
and then, retell a particular story from that era
over and over and over and over.
It would almost be like, she would get set off, and then she would start telling stories.
And she obviously, would enjoy it, telling the stories,
because, oftentimes she would tell the same stories to people, over and over and over.
And, um, I prayed on that 'cause I was...
I loved her so dearly and I was going deeper and deeper within and, um...
So one time when I came together with her,
and she launched into one of her stories from back in that era, or whatever.
At the end of the story I said to her, "What was the point of that story?"
And she just said,
"The point? What was the point? Does it have a point?"
And I said, "Well, I think it's, I think stories have a point." I said, um....
She loved Jesus! She adored Jesus!
And I said, "You notice that Jesus, whenever he would tell his stories, there was always a point."
She said "you're right."
"Every story he told had point."
Because I said, "he was teaching, he was demonstrating, you know
how to live and he was giving all these examples, and he really told a lot of stories, the prodigal son."
She said, oh yeah "I remember," I went through a few of them.
She said, "that's very important, it has to have a point." So I said, "so what was the point of the story you just told me?"
She said “I don’t know. I don't know if it has a point."
She said "that's interesting," because now with the context of Jesus,
she wanted to be telling stories with a point and she had a story with no point.
So, she was like, huh
"I don't think it has a point." She was just like a little child.
Because we were joining in love in purpose, and she was joining with me and looking
honestly, open eyed and honestly to see if her story had a point.
and...
she said "I don't think it has a point."
So I answered, "so really there's no need to tell it then?" she said "I guess not."
And you know...
She wasn't upset. I wasn't upset. You know, we simply joined together in joy, and love and happiness, which is our point, and that was the point of everything
and it was really good. And then even other times if she would start to tell something I could just say,
"what is the point?"
And she would then
stop and she would say "Ah,
there is no point" and then, it was a way of her breaking the pattern.
Even though it was a
deeply ingrained pattern, the love is stronger than the pattern.
And it's really all a reflection of our mind, if we're very sincere
and we follow the guidance of the spirit and we're open minded, then
every single encounter could be a witness of that love.
We don't have to think we have to put up with anything,
even putting up with stories.
And it's interesting, I was just in South Africa,
a gentleman from down there, he's come through
the circular breathing
technique and re-birthing and
he's really got it ingrained his mind about storytelling. It’s not good.
So when we were down there, we were down there in December for a while,
he got to experience some parables that were used in purpose, to kind of give an example or shine the light on something
to heal and to bless. And he said, "Oh yeah
I'm glad I got that experience of that because I was pretty closed-minded around
stories, as I thought nothing good can come from any story."
So he was able to understand that there were some stories that were being used by the spirit in a helpful way.