Find the sacredness in your story

We’re taught that some words matter more than others; that some stories of people figuring out God warrant labels like “holy” and “inerrant” while other stories aren’t worth mentioning at all.

We’re taught that some words are sacred and deserve to be printed again and again on thin pages with gilded edges and poured over by religious scholars and church ladies alike. We’re taught that our greatest gift and aspiration is to memorize and internalize as many of these words as possible and that the more we do it, the holier we will be.

We’re force-fed the words, made to swallow them whole and told they come straight from God, not realizing the number of hands that have butchered, prepared and seasoned them with their own interpretations before they got to us.

We’re taught that these words alone are God-breathed and that no other words matter—

Not even our own.

But why should we trust words of the dead, spoken in dead languages, printed on dead trees, and sewn into dead animal skin but not trust what The Divine says through the living, breathing bodies we inhabit?

We are God-breathed, too.

If stories and prayers written in the past are useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training into wholeness, then, aren’t the stories and prayers of our own lives just as useful?

If one story is sacred, then all stories are sacred, and humanity is the real canon of Scripture, testifying to the reality of the magnitude and diversity of God far above what councils and synods of men voted on as sacred a thousand years ago. If they felt free to make such decisions, then maybe it is okay for us to make decisions, too.

Only when we see the anthology of humanity as the story of God can the Scriptures of our religions find their appropriate place: offering wisdom and perspective alongside all the other stories of humans imagining God.

You do not have to be force-fed by anyone else’s words anymore. You have the freedom to choose which words impart meaning into your life. You can reclaim the sacredness of your story back from the selective book of Scripture on your shelf. You might choose to find wisdom and inspiration in the stories traditionally viewed as sacred, or you might not. But you, and only you, are the author and curator of your own sacred story.

AFFIRMATION: I am the author and curator of my own Sacred Story.

Written by Joy Vetterlein

From the upcoming series featuring Joy Vetterlein, "Reclaim Your Spiritual Freedom" this week, with a subscription, in the App.

Joy Vetterlein is a writer, pastor and spiritual misfit. After leaving her career in evangelical church ministry, she now explores unconventional spirituality and faith free from religious rules, and encourages others to do the same via her writing and her Band of Spiritual Misfits. Joy and her husband, Jeremy, have two kids and live nearish the beach in Orange County, California. Find Joy on her website or on Instagram.