Scott McClellan - Tell Me a Story: Finding God (and Ourselves) Through Narrative

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2013 by
SCOTT MCcLELLAN

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture quotations marked msg are from The Message, copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Edited by Pam Pugh
Interior Design: Design Corps
Cover Design: Faceout Studio
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McClellan, Scott.
Tell me a story : finding God (and ourselves) through narrative / Scott McClellan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8024-0856-3
1. StorytellingReligious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.
BT83.78.M375 2013
248.46dc23

2012038363

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To my girls, Elise and Maggie,

who have taught me far more than Ive taught them.

And to my wife, Annie,

who makes every story better through her kindness and strength.

WE WERE A YEAR INTO our adoption process when the wheels started to come off. International relations between the United States and Vietnam were breaking down, and it appeared the two countries might not renew their inter-country adoption agreement when it would expire six months later. What was supposed to simply be a long process suddenly became an at-risk process.

In February 2008, in order to proceed with the adoption journey we were convinced God had prompted us to start, Annie and I had to sign a waiver. In it we acknowledged that we might not be matched to a child before the current agreement expired, that a new agreement might not be reached, and that we might lose all the time and money wed invested in our adoption.

We also had to acknowledge that we might be crushed if things didnt work out, although that part wasnt explicitly stated in the waiver.

We stepped out in faith, signed the waiver, and then the bad news started. Some families couldnt get visas for their kids and they were stuck in Vietnam. A flu outbreak in a large orphanage rendered many previously eligible children ineligible for international adoption. The days on the calendar began to run out as we twisted in the wind, so desperate for good news, so desperate to become parents.

In July we got the call from our caseworker. Three children are going to be matched to families, but youre number four on the list, she said. Im sorry, we dont have a baby for you. The risk waiver wed signed months earlier now read like a prophecy, and we were crushed just as we had acknowledged we might be. As Annie wrote at the time, its difficult to let go of a dream youve nurtured for two years.

By the time all of this happened, Id been a Christian for more than a decade, and quite frankly, I didnt expect to have a crisis of faith. But thats what happened. After all, adopting a child wasnt even our ideait was Gods idea. Wed been so sure when we sensed Him leading us to start our family this way that we simply responded. (If were being honest, I took my sweet time coming around to the idea. At one point I was tempted to flee like Jonah fled from Gods call to go to Nineveh.) How could Gods idea go so terribly wrong? How could something that started out so good become so painful?

I confess that I assumed God wasnt in it anymore, either because wed done something wrong or because He simply moved on to someone or something more interesting. (Yes, I occasionally make God in my own image, and yes, Im aware thats a problem.) This conclusion, paired with our grief, led to some dark days. I still believed in God, but my circumstances caused me to wonder how He felt about me. Thankfully, God used two things to rescue us from our despair, and in a way, both of them were story.

A few months into our adoption journey, Annie and I started a blog. I wish we could say we had grand or benevolent intentions, but really we were tired. Tired of answering the same questions over and over again. Tired of being asked, Any news on the adoption front? and having to say, Nope. No news. None whatsoever, over and over again. So we started a blog. We answered several frequently asked questions, shared where we were in the process, and outlined what was next.

As you might imagine, the tone of our blog changed after we signed that waiver. At times we were scared. At times we were impatient. At times we were frustrated with the whole thing. But we were still hopeful, and we kept returning to the assurance that wed felt led to start this journey.

What we didnt realize was that while we were telling our story, we were inviting our friends and family into it. Our little ad hoc community shared in our optimism and anxiety, so when we received that terrible phone call from our caseworker, we didnt grieve alone. That support was the first thing God used to rescue us, and it meant the world to us.

The second thing God gave us was a frame for our pain. It was August 2008 and Annie and I were at the first Echo Conference. I wasnt very involved with the conference back then, but I was pitching in where I could while the rest of my colleagues at RT Creative Group did all the hard work. The second night of the conference, we took our seats in anticipation of hearing Donald Miller, because we enjoyed his books. As he spoke that night about how story structure might help us lead better lives, I struggled to keep up. The concept seemed so foreign to me. But when he got to the part about conflictan essential element of any good storyit was as though he was talking directly to us, offering us a new way to look at what wed endured the past few months.

Yes, there is conflict, Miller seemed to say, and yes, God loves you. Seen through the frame of story, those two ideas were no longer at odds with each other in my mind. Miller explained that conflict isnt what ruins a storyfar from it! Conflict is what makes a story great. If that idea is as foreign to you now as it was to me then, take a moment and try to think of a great story in which the protagonist wasnt put through the ringer. No such story exists.