What Makes A Great Story?

Dorothy and Toto. Luke, Han, and Leia. Rey, Poe, and Fin. Katniss and Peeta. Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethel. The Huxtables. Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pip, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. Bilbo and Thorin Oakenshield. The Pevensies. The Hardy Boys. Elizabeth, Rosemary and Lee, and Hope Valley.

Any of these names ring a bell? Chances are you recognized many of these names.

These are just a few characters from some of my favorite stories. Some are books. Some are films. Some are both.

These names immediately transport me into the middle of a story.

Some stories are dangerous and full of adventure. Others are magical. Others are more realistic featuring issues of life and family.

Stories are wonderful.

Great stories stir our imagination and teach us lessons about ourselves: as we are or as we wish we were. Or as things should be. They teach us truth without being “preachy”.

Recently, I was having lunch with the Mineral Christian School kids, and they were reading C.S. Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

In the fifth book of the Narnia series, we find Lucy and Edmund (the youngest Pevensies) back in Narnia with their cousin, Eustace.

This adventure challenges the characters with physical danger, temptation, and a grand mystery.

Maybe you and I do not sail around on a boat looking for the lost lords of Narnia, but we can all identify with aspects of this story: difficult family members, being separated from those you love, self-doubt and comparisons, temptations of all kinds, and the quest for truth.

Stories have a unique way of teaching us about ourselves and mirroring real life while presented in a made-up world.

Over the years, I have used the phrase “Bible stories” while teaching and preaching.

However, a few years back I shifted to say Biblical accounts and Biblical people/figures (rather than characters) because so many people think the Bible is made up just like the stories of the people I mentioned before.

I want people to know and understand that the Bible is real. The people are real. The topics are real. And the dynamics are real.

A former student of mine was struggling to believe this. We flipped to a psalm where David asks God to “smite his enemies down”.

I asked the group, “You ever felt that way? You ever wanted God to punish people who have done you wrong?”

They all agreed. My point was that the Bible captures real, raw emotion. David had the same reaction you and I might have.

While the Bible is truth and fact, I do not want us to lose the power of the Bible's story.

It is God's story. His love story for us.

It describes Him creating us to be with Him in perfect unity, how we messed that relationship up, and ultimately how He made the way back into relationship with Him.

It is a wonderful story.

It is real. It has ups and downs. It has twists and turns. It has things that make you stand and cheer, and it has things that will make you cringe.

It literally covers every genre and every topic in some way or another, but at its core is the message of truth, love, grace, and mercy.

This kind of message makes it a great story. Except this one is not fantasy or fiction. It is real. It is true.

Anyway, I was just thinking...

P.S. Just for fun, what are some of your favorite stories? Put them in the comments below.