START WITH NOW

-What’s God doing in your life right now?

-If you focus on now, it helps you pin point the significant

factors that got your there.

STICK WITH WHAT’S RELEVANT/INFLUENTIAL

CONSIDER SHAPING INFLUENCES

-Relationships

-Moments of trauma

-Harm you’ve done to others

-Patterns of habitual sin

-Physical ailment, injury, defect

-Social Pain (fallen world)

-Seasons of Blessing

-Consider Christ’s work in the midst of it all

TELL IT LIKE IT IS

-It doesn’t have to begin with suffering

-It doesn’t have to end “well”

SHARING YOUR STORY: EXERCISE

Do an initial sketch of your life story. Jot down major people, places, events that come to mind. Think about major disappointments and high points along the way. Imagine your life as a book, a movie, a play; who are the characters? What are the chapters or scenes? Describe the setting. Don’t worry too much about all the chronological details. You may even want to invite friends, your spouse, or you children to speak into these questions.

What do I worry about most?

What, if I failed or lost it, would cause me to feel that I did not even want to live?

What do I use to comfort myself when things go bad or get difficult?

What do I fantasize or daydream about?

Of what am I the proudest? By what do I want to be known?

What do I really want and expect out of life?

What would really make me unhappy?

What is my hope for the future?

How do you want to be remembered by your family?

How do you want to be remembered by your coworkers?

Picture yourself in 15 years, what do you see?

What do you often lie about? In what circumstances?