How do women thrive in ministry? Last week on Thursday, 700+ Baptists gathered in Atlanta for dinner to kick off a celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Baptist Women in Ministry. BWIM Executive Director, Rev. Dr. Meredith Stone asked us…
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3MMM | Episode 26: Future Stories
My training in psychology prepared me to look with careful attention to the past and to analyze how stories from family and childhood experiences that shape our lives. Not just our personal stories, but also stories embedded in religious rituals…
Read MoreEpiphany III
Storytelling . . .
In 2001, as I was working my way through doctoral courses in Religion, Psychology and Culture at Vanderbilt, I read pastoral theologian, Andy Lester’s book, Hope in Pastoral Care and Counseling. In that book he articulates several important ideas including the notion of “future stories.” The stories we tell ourselves about the future can have as much impact on us in the present as do all the stories we tell about our pasts.
For instance right now I’m carrying around a host of future stories about everything from what time I’ll turn out the lights tonight to what movie I might see this weekend, to where I’ll be teaching and what I will be researching 20 years from now. The power of future stories seems obvious when you try it on. But it is a significant challenge to the psychological traditions which mostly focus on the past as the main or only key to understanding personal identity or behavior in the present.
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