After watching "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" last night I have been thinking about the power of a story. Stories are powerful to teach and to move people.
I have been thinking about the difference between the last "religious" movie, "The Passion of Christ." For me, Narnia was much more powerful in making me feel and think that The Passion. When I saw The Passion, I didn't come away with much. It wasn't a big change moment for me, it didn't really make me more thankful or repentant or anything. Some of it was hard to watch, but that was more because of the gruesomeness than anything else.
Narnia was different though. I cried during the death and resurrection scenes. The quote about Aslan not being a tame lion sticks in my head. And the whole thing just stays with me more. I think some of it is that I have read the books over and over again, but I have also read the Bible quite a bit, so that can't be the whole reason for the difference. I think the difference is that you just get so much more caught up in a good story. They become friends. And it is just easier to take a lesson when you see someone else learning it, like Edmund, than when someone is just telling it to you.
And somehow I don't think that Jesus would be all to apposed to this idea. Jesus told story after story so there must be something to that. He must have known how powerful stories are. He must have known that his lessons would be better received in a story. He must have known that stories can affect change in a person more than anything else.
The power of a Story
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2 comments:
i agree that stories are very powerful. it's a pretty postmodern observation there, karen! but what about 'the greatest story ever told'? there has to be something different about it, don't you think?
I do think there is something differen't about "the greatest story ever told," I think there has to be something inherent in that story that makes it special. But at the same time I also think it has to do with the storyteller. When the storyteller is God, He can tell THE story like no one else. He can speak directly to our hearts and personal situation like no one else can!
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