Your Story is Sacred

Aug 5 / Laura Elly Hudson
Some years ago, I planned to offer a personal storytelling course that I was calling “Your Sacred Story.” I told a friend who was a great storyteller, thinking she’d sign right up. 
“Oh no. I couldn’t join that class,” she said. 
Surprised, I asked her, “Why not?” 
She replied, “Well, my story’s not sacred.”

The basic dictionary definition of the word “sacred” points to that which is “connected to God” and “dedicated to a religious purpose and so deserving veneration.” Years of religious and cultural training have taught us to distinguish between the sacred, the profane, and the merely mundane. "Sacred" applies only to holy people, saints, heroes, and those who have accomplished something extraordinary. 

My friend considered her life story too mundane to be called sacred. Did she also consider her experiences and life learnings unworthy of the time and energy to reflect on them and give them voice? I was troubled by the contradiction that a lifelong Christian, a student of scriptures telling of humanity created in the divine image, a follower of the Word made flesh, did not see her story as sacred. 

However, working as a church pastor, I am also aware of how often my voice is prioritized over others in my congregation. Because of my ordination and preaching role, my story is perceived as "sacred." Of course, respecting religious and spiritual leaders is reasonable and necessary. Yet, as a spiritual director, I've heard too many stories of abuse where leaders wielded their "sacred" authority to manipulate and control others. How many voices have we silenced by prioritizing some stories over others? What divine creativity has been stifled when religious traditions require conformity to a single, controlled expression of the sacred?

Maybe because I'm the daughter of an actual Saint (true story: "Saint" is my mother's maiden name), I've never thought the word "sacred" only applied to extraordinary people. Though Roman Catholicism has a rigorous process of officially naming "saints," the early church applied that word to anyone who followed Jesus. To remind our class of this, one of my seminary professors greeted us, saying, "Good morning, saints!" Another reminded us that we were members of "the priesthood of all believers." Theologically, we are sanctified not of our merit or effort but because God has chosen to dwell with us, for us, and within us in Jesus Christ. 

As I see it today, the word "sacred" applies to every person and life form on Earth. As Richard Rohr puts it in The Universal Christ, “When I know that the world around me is both the hiding place and the revelation of God, I can no longer make a significant distinction between the natural and the supernatural, between the holy and profane.” Everything in the universe is given by and returns to the Sacred Mystery. Each interaction with the world, no matter how ordinary it might seem, harbors a spark of the sacred. 

Stories are the language of human experience, the way human beings best speak to each other soul to soul. Your story is sacred, not by virtue of some extraordinary holiness, but because it expresses your soul’s experience of life on Earth. No matter how ordinary you think you are, your story is sacred because you are a unique expression of Life Itself. 

Once we recognize the worthiness of our own stories, we can learn to honor the sacred stories of everyone we meet. You have a sacred story, and so does everyone else. There is no one whose story is not worthy to be shared and known.
Every story you share may transmit the sacred spark to others. Writes Rachel Naomi Remen in Kitchen Table Wisdom, “Everybody is a story…Hidden in all stories is the One story. The more we listen, the clearer that story becomes. Our true identity, who we are, why we are here, what sustains us, is in this story.” 

Soul companioning is the work of listening to the One story expressed in all stories. With reverence and love, we host a space where others can tell their stories. Through our full attention, careful questions, and nonjudgmental presence, our companions learn to recognize the Sacred Presence hidden and revealed in their stories. 

Sometimes, the story is a testimony of joy; by adding our attention and gratitude, we help the storyteller savor and more deeply inhabit their experience. Sometimes, the story is a lament; by offering compassion and empathy, we honor the truth of their loss and encourage mourning that opens the heart to new meaning. When we receive every story with reverence, including all the nuances between joy and sorrow, laughter and tears, we show others that their story is sacred. 



Laura Elly Hudson

Laura Elly Hudson, founder of Resilient Spirit, is a spiritual director, story coach, and writer. She has served as a co-pastor alongside her husband, Keith, for nearly 15 years at First Presbyterian Church in La Grande, Oregon. She is the mother of two teenage sons and the servant of a tuxedo cat named Chocolate. 

Laura hosts a compassionate listening space for creatives, changemakers, and people who want to embody their soul calling. As they explore their sacred stories and experience their belonging with God, Laura's clients experience deep peace and discover clarity, confidence, and courage to take aligned, practical steps and make, do, or become the change they wish to see in the world.

You can learn more about Laura's work at www.lauraellyhudson.com or at https://www.facebook.com/laura.ellyhudson/, and you can receive a free audio of the "Notice, Savor, and Give Thanks" grounding meditation by clicking HERE to join the Resilient Spirit newsletter.