why write my story ?

September 22, 2025

Good evening,

It seems to me that I am posting later and later in the day. I wonder why ? I might still be getting used to a new rhythm in retirement. At the Mennonite Story four people have been on vacation, so I have been filling in a few more shifts ( like today ) than normal. When I was writing while still at Poole, the focus was the congregation. Maybe, I am still trying to see who is my audience, maybe it is still just for me.

I am really wondering about the situation in the United States and in Gaza being the reason my writing has been more challenging. I do not watch as much news, but what I hear is so distressing that it is hard to focus. Everyday Trump outdoes himself with something unbelievable. Today, he announced a connection between Tylenol and autism. He is not a doctor, but he makes the public statement. And the ruthless destruction of Gaza continues every day. 

And I have been thinking about my life, and if a story, my story, needs to be written. I am a regular guy who has lived a relatively safe and unassuming life, mostly here in Canada. I have had some extraordinary health events in my life for sure, but why should I write my story ? I think it would be good for myself, and my family to have a record of my life events, and a little bit about my faith journey. I am still trying to figure it out to review my life in a public way, like a memoir. Why does my story need to be told ?
I keep coming back to the passage from the beginning of Luke’s Gospel.. He felt it important to write down an orderly account of the life of Jesus . This is Luke 1:1-4

‘ Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,  just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.  With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,  so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.’

Fred