WJI Blog 2022, May 23 PM - The Beauty of Storytelling

Everyone has a story.

I knew this to be true way before I came to WJI. I knew it before I even became interested in

journalism, and the idea continues to fuel my desire for writing. The ultimate storyteller, God,

has not only created a novel of life from beginning to end but has intricately written who we are

as individuals and as part of His kingdom. We all have stories, and they deserve to be shared.

We learned about writing profiles from renowned journalists Russ Pulliam and Mr. Pitts this

afternoon. The question that we need to ask when writing about specific people is this: why did

God create them? What is their unique contribution to the world that makes them stand out? I

mean, we know they’re special. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be interviewing them, and, as

Christians, we acknowledge we are all created in the image of God. He has a purpose and a plan

for all of us. Our goal as journalists is to dig into what those purposes are.

However, then Pulliam and Pitts gave us a challenge. “Pair up and write about each other,” they

said. At first, all of us glanced around. We’ve only known each other for a weekend at this point.

Now we were going to deep dive into the reasons for our existence?

But, oh, what a blessing it turned out to be. We didn’t have to give a narrative resume or a

“cradle to college” story, as Pitts said often. Yet, we got to be honest and vulnerable about a

snapshot, a picture in an entire photo album, of what God is doing in us.

My partner and I realized we had both struggled with the idea of perfectionism. Though we had

experienced life differently, the principle of God speaking our worth (accepting us as we are,

flawed and beautiful, and loving us too much to keep us there) remained the same. Another

pairing later revealed God had moved in both of their lives simultaneously, and one of them said,

“How crazy is it that our God can be so personal yet everywhere at the same time?”

It’s because He’s the ultimate storyteller. He sees the connections and reveals them to us. There’s

a reason these 27 other people and I are attending WJI here at Dordt in 2022. We’re all here for a

reason, meant to interact and go deeper than just names on a roster sheet. Do we know what it is?

Not yet, but God does, and that is enough for us.

“Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons the next generation.” -

Joel 1:3

- Lexie Presta