The Power of Story to Bridge Divisions

by Tim Suddeth @TimSuddeth

Over the holidays, I’ve enjoyed watching the commercials for Ancestry. com. Ancestry is the company that tests your DNA and then sends back information on your family.

The commercials captured my wife and me every time. They had families coming together, the children or teens asking their parents or grandparents questions or bringing up family history they’d been told. A cozy Hallmark movie in thirty seconds.

The point of the commercials wasn’t that they were selling DNA information, but they were selling stories.

Stories. There’s something about them that connects us more than just facts. In the above commercials, they didn’t tell us how many kits they’ve done over the years, how quickly the process is, or how far back they go. In fact, they didn’t even mention what the client had received. We only saw the family coming together to hear the story.

Eugene Peterson, in Leap Over the Wall, illustrates the power stories can hold over one’s lifetime. He wrote how his Mom would regale them with stories from the Bible, bringing them to life. When the whole community had gathered when Samuel arrived to anoint one of Jesse’s sons to be the next king, he said he could smell the hotdogs and cotton candy. Later, when he was able to study the scripture for himself, he was disappointed to learn that only the first three sons are named in the Bible. There were no Ole, Gump, Klug, or Chugger as his Mom had had described.

Is it any surprise that he later wrote the Message? He wanted to make the text to be more conversational and inviting for a novice to read or those who had read the Bible but found it too familiar.

The Ancestry commercials also showed different generations and segments stopping and coming together, which is a too rare thing to happen today. In a recent Public Agenda/USA TODAY/Ipsos poll, more than nine out of ten said it’s important for the US to try to reduce divisiveness.

It is becoming harder, not just to get people to listen, but to even be able to communicate with others. We are constantly bombarded with shouting on what we should do or believe that we are tuning it out and staying away from the noise more. It is almost impossible to tell what the facts are, they get twisted so much.

Which is why stories are so helpful. I’ve heard that we can argue facts and data, but not feelings and experiences. Telling a story helps you and your listener share a part of your life. Connecting a little.

And isn’t that what we need? Connections and not divisions. Not to always be right, but for us to come closer together.

Sounds like something Jesus would have approved of.

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Tim Suddeth is a stay-at-home dad and butler for his wonderful, adult son with autism. He has written numerous blogs posts, short stories, and three novels waiting for publication. He is a frequent attendee at writers’ conferences, including the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference and a member of Word Weavers and ACFW. He lives near Greenville, SC where he shares a house with a bossy Shorky and three too-curious Persians. You can find him on Facebook, Twitter, or at timingreenville.com.