As we journey through this life, exploring and sharing our sacred stories becomes a profound contemplative act. By delving into the depths of our experiences – the traumas that have wounded us, the gifts that beckon us forth, the callings that stir our souls – we integrate the various aspects of our selfhood. We come to a deeper self-knowledge and awareness of how the narrative threads of our lives have been woven together by the unseen hand of the Divine Storyteller.
When we courageously share these stories in the presence of a compassionate, skilled witness like a spiritual director or therapist, something profound happens. We discern the fingerprints of grace amidst the hurting places. We experience being tenderly held in our brokenness, neither invaded nor abandoned by the One who bears infinite positive regard for us. Like a loving parent mirroring back unconditional acceptance, the witness reflects the boundless empathy and self-congruent honesty with which God sees and knows us.
As we engage the contemplative work of authoring our spiritual autobiographies, recounting memories at the feeling level, we begin to perceive the radiant trajectory of God’s transforming work across the long years. Even amidst the fragility and woundedness, we discern the luminous path of healing and wholeness being traced out. What once seemed a mass of fragmented experiences reveals itself as an icon of redemption, each hurting place a place where the Christic depth could meet us.
Though we are indeed the authors penning the words of our life stories, we are simultaneously the awed audience listening to the mysterious voice that narrates from within. And ultimately, we realize that the true Author is God himself, estrating the tale of our belovedness from before the dawn of time. In this grace-wakened seeing, we are liberated from internalized shame narratives that haunt and distort. We enter into the tender gaze that perfects while it perceives, the boundless mercy that could declare from the Cross “They know not what they do.”
So may we continue co-authoring this living scripture of our souls with the Sacred Novelist. May we share our stories as a rightful part of the Larger Tale being told. And may we be graced to receive our stories anew as the whisperings of the One who beholds us as Beloved from all eternity.
Summary
Telling and exploring our own life stories is an important contemplative act for deepening self-knowledge and integrating different aspects of ourselves, including experiences, traumas, gifts, and callings. Sharing these sacred stories with a skilled, compassionate witness like a spiritual director or therapist provides immense value by helping us discern the presence of God’s grace amidst the hurting places and tenderly work through them. In psychotherapy, the therapist aims to embody God’s infinite love, understanding, and honesty toward us through unconditional positive regard, empathy, and self-congruence. Writing a spiritual autobiography by recounting experiences at the feeling level can reveal the unfolding of God’s work in our lives over time, even amidst brokenness. While we are both the author narrating our experiences and the audience listening to ourselves, ultimately God is the true Author writing our stories as beloved children. This process of re-authoring can free us from internalized, unhelpful narratives and open us to God’s merciful, tender understanding of our journeying souls.
Key Points
1. Telling and exploring our own life stories is an important contemplative act for deepening self-knowledge and awareness of how we have been shaped by experiences, traumas, gifts, and callings. It allows us to integrate different aspects of ourselves.
2. Sharing our sacred stories with a skilled, compassionate witness like a spiritual director or therapist can provide immense value by helping us discern the presence of God/grace in our lives and tenderly work through the hurting places.
3. In psychotherapy, the therapist aims to embody unconditional positive regard, empathy, and self-congruence, which can be understood as reflecting God’s infinite love, understanding, and honesty toward us.
4. Writing a spiritual autobiography by recounting experiences at the feeling level in present tense can reveal the unfolding of God’s work in our lives over time, even amidst brokenness.
5. We are both the author and audience of our life stories as we simultaneously narrate our experiences and listen to ourselves. Yet ultimately, God is the true Author writing our stories as beloved children.
6. The process of re-authoring our stories can free us from internalized, unhelpful narratives and open us to God’s merciful, tender understanding of our journeying souls.