I am still recovering from a pretty serious head injury, nearly six weeks ago. I fell flat on my back, off a ladder and onto a concrete floor. I didn’t suffer any spinal injury. I did break my skull in 3 places, and bruised the little brain inside. One friend said, “The angels must have put padding under your back before you hit the floor.” I said, “But they missed getting it there in time for my head.”

For years, I’ve had an answer for other people’s experiences in this category. Actually, I still tell myself the same answer. Because that answer seems to fit when I consider the stories of real people recorded in the Bible; and it seems to fit in real life, now.

Without experiences, we have no story. Without story, we only have a religion.

When God (or whatever coincidence or smarts we imagine) spares us completely from an injury or casualty we don’t even realize, we have no story. We haven’t learned anything.

On the other hand, every experience is the beginning of a story. And painful experiences seem to write the most profound stories.

My lightweight story of pain seems nothing in comparison to what others have experienced–from the suffering of believers in the Church around the world, or the losses that some of my close friends have felt through sickness and death. There have been times I have literally envied the evidence of a more passionate love for Jesus that came directly from a story of severe suffering. Of course, I quickly came back to my senses.

However, we don’t decide what elements go into our own stories. We only choose what our story means, in the ultimate scheme; we choose how it shapes our view of life, of the purpose of life, of the essence of our life in Christ.

The powerful stories of people, both in Scriptures and in the world we experience, prove to me that God grows people in astounding ways through their story—a story that always includes unexpected pain.

Through life-changing experiences, we have a story. With a faith-based interpretation of story, we can joyfully grow toward the ultimate prize—a life of full partnership with Jesus.