Looking at the title you might wonder about this how to
answer this question. You might think: “Do I even have one?”
All of us do have a story to tell if we have lived for any
period of time on this planet.
Being connected with others makes our account “inter
narrative” and more complex since one narrative affects the other person’s
story. Just as we personally have a story to tell, together with our family our
community and worldwide we also have one to communicate.
Narrative is the choice of which events to relate, in what
order, and from whose perspective. In other words, it is the way in which a
story is told — whether fiction or nonfiction.
A story is a set sequence of events, but the same story can
yield many different narratives. The life of Jesus was rewritten from different
points of view if we read the Gospels because each one was written by a
different apostle; other people who lived at the same time of Jesus have a
different narrative. Because of either their position or view of Jesus or their
background their story became very different than those who wrote the Gospels,
even though the “facts” of the Jesus biography remains the same!
This is because a narrative doesn’t just present the facts.
It connects events and relates them to each other or to specific ideas, themes,
or concepts — all based on who’s “telling” the story and who the audience is.
The ideal witness in a courtroom gives an unbiased account,
but the author of a narrative has an ulterior agenda (whether consciously or
subconsciously): to mold the story to fit an overarching set of aims or
effects.
Here are nine of the most common types of how your story
could be told:
As a Descriptive, Viewpoint, Historical, Personal, Quest,
Linear, Nonlinear, Parallel or Episodic narrative
If you are a writer then you can glean good tips from this
article. Today we will expound a bit more on “World Narrative”. Which means: it
refers to a large-scale story or overarching interpretation that attempts to
explain or connect major events, trends, and experiences across the entire
globe, essentially providing a comprehensive view of human history and society
on a global scale; it's a way of understanding the world through a story-like
framework. Your worldview narrative depends on which view you choose to take.
Either the negative one (AKA Doom Sayers, Dooms dayers or Negativists) or the
positive side (AKA optimists, daydreamers, utopians, visionaries or reformers).
A viewpoint narrative immerses readers or listeners in a
character’s mind. The purpose of this type of narrative is to help the reader
understand the views, feelings, desires, beliefs, or values of the “viewpoint”
character(s).
In omniscient narration, the narrator can tell or show the
reader what each character thinks and feels in a scene, freely, because they
are not one of them (God is an omniscient God!).
The so called all-knowing narrator may share multiple
characters' private thoughts, even in a single scene. By contrast, in limited
narration, we can only know a single person's perception of events and
relationships.
Because of this, viewpoint narrative has an enormous
influence over the story. We might interpret events the way the narrator does —
either because we don't have a different viewpoint for comparison, or because
their voice is strong and self-assured. (like God’s Word)
Yet the viewpoint narrator may be unreliable; they could lie
about what truly happened, or gloss over details that make them look bad. Think
about News or TV Stories you heard whose conflicting versions of events didn’t
add up. (Praise God we have a God that does not lie! His Word is truth)
Living in our world today, there are many different
viewpoints, depending which country you live in, your background, education,
experiences, belief, the circle of friends you have and your circumstance RIGHT
NOW. Call it coloured glasses. If we go by that term, the colour of our glasses
is so varied there might not be enough colours in the spectrum we have or know.
What is the point of all this? What is the benefit of
knowing this if you are not even close to ever writing your biography. Your
life itself is a narrative that unfolds itself day by day. Psalm 139:16 says
:“Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and
ordained for me before one of them came to be.” God knows your account already
and how it will unfold. You have an influence on it then? Yes! Because He also
knows the choices you will make in your part of world history, your responses
at each point of what is unfolding around you and worldwide. Just because He
knows (because He lives ahead of us or rather outside of our time frame) does
not mean we do not have a choice to make. This means how you narrate world
events to others can be a positive one or a negative one. Are bad things
happening around you and in the world? That’s obvious. But if we view and know
God as the winner and his enemy as the looser, wouldn’t we want to be on the
winning side? How do we know for certain He is the winner, when there have been
and are so many losses? Because Bible History has proven His winning
capacities, showing us His win win’s andthe bright future ahead for all of us. The choice of how to live out His
story personally is written beautifully in the New Testament. As for me and my
household, that is how we like to live and write our narrative.
God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing
salvation for everyone.
This same grace teaches us how to live each day as we turn
our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles, and it equips us to live
self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.
For we continue to look forward to the joyful fulfillment of
our hope in the dawning splendor of the glory of our great God and Savior,
Jesus, the Anointed One.
He sacrificed himself for us that he might purchase our
freedom from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people who are his
very own, passionate to do what is beautiful in his eyes. (TPT Titus 2: 11-14)
Live the life you are meant to live and help our Creator
weave the beautiful narrative that He already is the winner of!