A Story Worth Telling :: Bill Blankschaen

• A Story Worth Telling by Bill Blankschaen on Amazon

In A Story Worth Telling, FaithWalkers founder Bill Blankschaen brings us "Your Field Guide to Living an Authentic Life," in terms of making a difference in people and situations we meet along the way, and especially in terms of discerning how God might be calling us to serve with our particular gifts and interests.

Regarding the book's Christian orientation, I feel it started off much too slowly, since the first three chapters could have been almost any generic self-help book. But A Story Worth Telling is not about self-help, or about saving yourself (which we know is not possible)--it's about prayerfully trusting God's leading so God can change us and help us change people and institutions around us.

Bill, a writer, educator, and one-time pastor, offers scripturally sage counsel such as standing still and letting the Lord fight this battle/skirmish for us yet at the same time moving on by putting one foot in front of another. He cautions us not to slap a "god label" on everything seemingly good that just happens to occur in our lives, such as finally getting some job, renting or buying that nice house or apartment, etc. Not that everything in all creation does not belong to God and come from Heaven...

Living by trust ("faith" that's not the simple intellectual agreement too many peeps in the pews imagine) in the living God means taking a lot of risks, but Bill cautions us to make them "righteous risks" (page 62) rather than stupid ones. He gives his own example of quitting a very good job not knowing what would be next, yet knowing he already had many marketable skills some individual or organization might find useful.

(page 95) "a calling requires a caller." (pages 100-101) Remember, God generally calls us to live our story [worth telling] in our areas of strength, there we excel, where passions and talents unite in ways we can make a unique contribution.

In this Field Guide we get counseling and questions to respond to in highlighted sections that include Prepare Your Gear; Explore the Trail Ahead; Check Your Coordinates. The author provides narratives of human and divine faithfulness from Old and New Testaments; like most current books of this general genre, he mentions stories worth telling that have been told countless times of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (happily quoting her reminder each of us can do "small things with great love") and world-changing, church-transforming reformer Martin Luther. Bill Blankschaen also shares stories from his own and other "regular people's" lives that demonstrate living faithfully and trusting God with the outcomes, which may not always be what we thought we wanted. But God's not finished with us yet—we can live trusting God in ways that will make a difference to others, maybe even lives that will be remembered?

• My Amazon Review: Field guide to memorable lives worth talking about