"What's Your Story?" : The Whys and Hows of Spiritual Timelines

How good are you at telling your own story?
Would you like to get better at it?
Are you a writer, or keep a journal?
I have found that spiritual timelines might help you identify events to talk about and to write about.

Timelines are quick ways to organize information, particularly about autobiographies.  And I’m a visual person so it is particularly helpful for me.  Looking at your life in a linear way brings memories to the surface as you think about how you may have gotten from point A to point B.

I was introduced to spiritual timelines as a class assignment/icebreaker this past fall.  Thinking that it was a simply a bit of busy work, I completed the assignment in about 2 hours.  But, looking at it over the past year, the timeline has opened up to be something more. The timelines have helped me practice telling my stories and help me reflect on my life.

Why care about our own stories?  To make a general observation, the Bible is first and foremost a collection of stories of peoples’ encounters with God.  It does not speak with one voice or present a single theology.  The Bible is a library of individual books with the writing spread over thousands of years.  When you come to the Bible looking for some bit of knowledge about God, the Bible--in a way--replies, "Let me tell you a story."

Likewise, we can think of our life as a library and events as books.  Or perhaps of our life as one story, with many chapters.  You can pick your own metaphor here.  But, typically when people ask you a question about yourself, it is an invitation to tell a story.

The spiritual angle: 

Working with a timeline helps in being able to identify with other people’s stories by knowing your own story better, and getting a sense of how you would tell your story in relation to theirs.  Practicing telling your stories also helps you think more deeply about your own relationship to God; because it will bring up some questions that will ask you to look harder at what has happened.  To return to the metaphor:  it helps you pull books from your library when you need them or want them, and therein discover something you had not noticed before.

My timeline can be an example.
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Making your Timeline

Overriding Rubrics:  Freedom, honesty, and integrity.  It is your timeline, you can make of it what you will as long as you are honest with yourself.

So, here are some recommendations instead of instructions:

1.      Create at least three lines for world events, life events, and spiritual events.

2.      Examples of things to put on the timelines:

a.       World Events: presidents, civil rights movements, memorable deaths, meetings, wars, etc.

b.      Life Events: Birth, other births, moves, schools, illness, marriages, coming out, first loves, following loves, accidents, family events, deaths, happinesses, etc.

c.       Spiritual Events: baptism, Churches (going to/leaving), time in different/no religions/denominations, time not knowing what you are spiritually/religiously, first time taking communion, particularly powerful spiritual moments (in nature, with someone, etc.)

                                                              i.      These often connect to life and world events, so connect them if they seem to fit.

d.      Other things you could include:  formative songs, movies, quotes, friendships, meaningful biblical stories.

e.       See below for a way to illustrate the closeness or distance/hiddenness of God.

f.       Your life is more than one color; you timeline should be colorful too!

Another Option --or-- you can combine these two projects

1.      On one line, mark off 5 or 10-year increments of your life.

2.      Using one color, mark the ‘highs’ above the line and “lows” below the line, in each time period— “external events or experiences when you were surprised by delight, changed, stuck in a rut, or dismayed by loss (births, deaths, job changes, health issues, relationships)

3.      Using a different color, mark the spiritual “highs” and “lows” — Times of closeness to God, times of distance, inner turmoil and transformation, meaning, belonging, purpose (these may or may not have taken place in connection to a church).

4.      Highlight/write in 3 or 4 places where you sense a story you might want to develop for your library.

Some things to ask of your timeline

1.      Try looking at your timeline as if you were a stranger.  Do you see something that you think would make (or already has made) a good story?  How do you tell the story of points on the timeline, the transitions?

2.      Are there any biblical stories that mirror your life? 

3.      Are there biblical stories that you took strength from in a time in your life?

“Homework”

1. Share timelines and stories when you have a chance.
2. Don’t be afraid to mess up and have to start over.  It is your timeline. You might discover things you need to reconsider… and space is an issue... Timelines, like life, can be messy.
3. Similarly, you might decide that a period of time needs its own separate timeline!  You can make more than one.
4. Practice telling some stories over the next few weeks.  See if, in conversation, an avenue comes up to share something of yourself.
5. If you like to write, perhaps pick a story to write out in detail.