It's Not Your Story to Tell

A good friend posted an update online and I was able to read between the lines. I sent a quick text to check on her and she replied, "It's not my story to tell..."

Using wisdom, she asked for prayer without giving any details. At all. And that's okay. In fact, it's more than okay. It's a sign of maturity.

It reminded me of a situation I found myself in a few years ago. We had a guest speaker at church who invited everyone to the front for special prayer after he spoke. We lined up, waiting our turn. Some were singing, some were quietly praying, some were worshiping, some were...gossiping? At first I couldn't believe what was happening right next to me. We were at the altar, waiting to receive a blessing or healing from God, and they were gossiping about someone who wasn't there that day.

I didn't want to correct them. I tried to reason myself out of it. I asked God to have someone else do it. But He wouldn't let me go. 

I hate confrontation. Hate. It.

Yet somehow I often get to be the one to deal with the ugly stuff. 

I injected myself into their conversation and told them they needed to stop gossiping. Especially at the altar. I was met with excuses and, "I was just telling her why--" 

I interrupted and said there was no reason to be talking about someone else while at the altar. This went back and forth a few times until I finally blurted, "You are at the altar, expecting God to bless you, and you're talking about someone. Her story isn't your story to tell. What you need to be doing right now is praying and focusing on the Lord." They stopped their jabbering but neither was happy with me. And one told me about it later, letting me know she had to forgive me for how upset I made her.

Truth hurts.

It really does. We don't want to hear the truth when our actions are inappropriate. We don't like to be corrected. I don't like being on either end of correction, yet if the correction is Biblically based then heeding it will help us grow in our walk with the Lord.

Because it isn't about us. It isn't about what makes us happy, what makes us feel good, what affirms us, what gets us attention. It's about Him. It's about serving Him, following Him, and becoming more like Him.

And less like us.

His story is the one we should be telling. With the same urgency that we share the latest hot gossip. Let's be passionate about that.