A True Hero

Forgetting and Remembering the Truth

Gibran says that forgetting things is a type of freedom (1). Some things we all wish we could forget: traumas, fears, and past mistakes. But there is a different freedom in remembering the truth. In fact, the truth sets us free (2).

“Let me tell you a story…” She began. It was another squelching bright blue day, my husband and I were sitting on the hard concrete of her living room/the front porch of her house with a few of our other church family from that part of the village. About 10 people were gathered. I was on edge...was our friend finally going to re-tell one of the Jesus stories we had told her? Perhaps the hours of penning down the unique (to us foreigners) alphabet and word phrasing, training with a teacher for proper pronunciation, memorizing Bible stories in our 3rd language, all of this was not futile after all. Still, we were waiting and hoping that this was the moment that a new follower was going to retell a Jesus story.

Every week for months we had hoped for this. Because we had seen that our friends in this remote, unengaged people group really wanted to obey and love Jesus on so many levels. They had heard so many Jesus stories and we were walking with them in their new faith. The “formula” and logic were there in our minds. We had learned many storytelling techniques. We had listened to real-life experiences of entire people groups being changed due to Jesus stories coming to life: Etao, Peace Child, End of the Spear.

Instead, “Our brains are not good!” was the usual whining message we were met with by our friends after telling a Jesus story and asking them if they remember anything about it. Specifically, this was the answer from the friend who was sitting across from us now, Poppy*, starting to tell a story. Seconds after we told any story, it was as if she were a five-year-old unable to read a line of a children’s book. She could not recall a single detail.

In reality, Poppy is 65+ years with hands aged in ways beyond her years and a face that is so engraved with seasons of tilling, plowing, and sun rays beating on her that it is impossible to match that whiny voice with her body. In fact, the whiny woman, Poppy, is a leader of one of the churches in her village. She had been the first person - our Person of Peace - to invite others to know Jesus. She could tell her community all about how great Jesus was, but could not remember any Bible stories to share with others. What was the disconnect? We wondered if her memory really was failing.

Now, here she was, eyes sparkling. The tea was already drunk and we were all settling into our new place on the concrete floor for the next few hours. The breeze suffocating, like an oven door open, or a fire flame waving towards my face. Lucid, she sat ready to tell us a tale. “This is what we had been waiting for,” I thought.

She breathed in deeply, and started a beautiful story.

About a different god.

And it was twenty minutes long, no details spared.

I was furiously thrashing in my inner being. My mind was flustered. Picture a screaming face in a massive pillow. Or a ball being kicked at a wall over and over. I felt deceived. Angry and annoyed, I sat there wanting to flee fast.

Somewhere around minute 15, I started to do something strange. I started to LISTEN. With intention and kindness, warmth even. The Spirit of God hovered over my ears and tuned my heart into what was really happening. She was retelling a story that was so dear to her, from probably many childhood moments, sitting around the temple or wrapped up in a blanket under the stars hearing about this god that would stop at nothing for his bride.

In the story, the god was betrayed. His bride was stolen by a demon god, and taken deep into a dark forest. But not forever, because the god was going to rescue his bride and demolish that demon god at any cost. This god, in her mind, was powerful and persistent.

The Spirit of Jesus kept interrupting when boredom or annoyance tried to creep up on me. He spoke, “Listen!” over and over again. And I did.

When Poppy finished speaking, I told her it was a beautiful story. It was. What a powerful love story of a god that would never stop, never give up, on his bride - because he chose her. Now the real ending of her story is a bit controversial, but thankfully, she did not tell that part. She left it at the victory part - where the husband (god) took back his bride, which was right and just. She left the story there, which made it an easy moment for the Spirit of Jesus to speak to me and remind me of the beginning of the end of His true story.

Instead of speaking from my flesh and yelling out what I was thinking about 5 minutes earlier, “You cannot remember a SINGLE Jesus story but you remember THIS?” or “Why have you been saying you cannot remember anything? You just told a twenty minute story from memory!” Instead, I said what Jesus wanted to say to each of their hearts.

The story is a good story. And it is true.

Jesus has a bride. He chose her and He loves her beyond measure. But He loves her so much that He has given her freedom. And there is a “demon god”, an enemy, that is trying to steal her away from Jesus. And the bride is in a state now where in many ways she is with that demon god, not being true to her husband, Jesus. But Jesus said He is coming back for her, and He is fighting for her, wanting her to be with Him always.

Then, Jesus prodded me to ask, “Do you all know who that bride is?” No one spoke. I paused and gave the answer, “Us.”

Inhaled gasps fell over the whole group as their eyes were wide in suspense. “That is true,” they nodded and looked at each other in awe. “That is true.”

True as it is, the new story probably did not help them remember Jesus stories any better than previous attempts. There was no technique to it for memorization. But it seemed to me that Jesus’ plan was not about memorization or retelling stories that day. It was to make their loose-ended story have a true ending that empowered them. With the true hero in His place. A hero that has an unstoppable, powerful, persevering, and impenetrable love for them, his precious bride. It is an indelible true story that will permeate in the darkest of times.

“Forgetfulness Quotes.” Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/forgetfulness. Accessed 14 October 2020.
Holy Bible, New International Version. Zondervan Publishing House, 1984. John 8:32.

*Name changed for security reasons.

About the author: Kira Day is an international field worker who, along with her family, has lived in 3 different countries in the past 11 years. She loves seeing Jesus in the eyes of different cultures as well as making Him and His gospel accessible to all peoples, especially the neglected. She and her husband sparked a church planting movement in an unreached and unengaged people group in Asia where they currently live.

allnations.international
reaching the neglected globally — the least, the last, and the lost

More Resources:
Devotional Series - Lessons from the Least, the Last, and the Lost brought to you by All Nations International and Blake Staton, All Nations Cultural & Missiology Consultant. Link here for more info and to sign up.