Visions and recurring motifs: the call of God, and making an impact

As we seek for God to be at work in the world, we can reflect on what it means to be invited into God’s work. God is also calling us to be sent ones, to make an impact that tells of his Kingdom, salvation and character. Just as Isaiah replied “Here am I. Send me” (Isaiah 6:8), we must also decide on what our answer will be, and what impact we might make in partnership with God and others.

To what, where or who is God calling and inviting me to partner with him?

What part do I hope to play in God’s transformation of people (and the world!)?

Do I feel particularly called to a particular ministry, community or workplace? How do you hope God will use me in this area?

How do I feel about the ministry God is calling me to? Excited? Daunted? Prepared?

What kind of legacy of faith do I hope to leave? If someone was to describe the impact that I have made for God’s kingdom what do I hope they would say?

“Many people have never taken the time to step back and intentionally look back at our entire life, seeking to identify an overarching theme or identify lessons that God had continually been trying to teach us.”[1]

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[1] Seidel, "Life Story and Spiritual Formation."

I believe that God often calls people through visions and recurring motifs. For me, this included motifs of the ship, the wind, the orphan, the heart, the fruits, the eagle and the bride.

When I was a new Christian, I was especially inspired by the verse on the fruits of the Spirit. In the months before Chris became one of my housemates, the motif of “the fruits” predominated.

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2019/09/high-times-hard-times-hand-of-god.html

During my first few years in the work force, the motif of “the orphan” vs “the heart of flesh” predominated, as I began to shift from being task and goal-orientated to being more relationship-orientated.

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-orphan-heart-rev-james-liaw.html

“Eagles and flying” is another motif that comes up from time to time. Various people I know have likened me to an eagle: not restricted by groundly borders as I have flown across so many places, and highly independent. Personally, I feel especially inspired by scriptural verses with eagles in it. Birds are my favourite animals and I enjoy the idea of flying so much that I always go for the roller coasters, drop towers and pendulum rides in amusement parks. 

Whilst studying in the theological college and doing some field education in the church, there has been several years where “the ship” has been a frequently recurring motif. After all, ships are commonly used as a metaphor for the church.

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2017/10/ships.html

https://youtu.be/IqKT2GT_RZE

Then, ever since preaching my first sermon in the church on Ezekiel 37:1-14, the Valley of Dry Bones, the wind has become the dominant motif.  

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2018/11/my-first-sermon-ezekiel-371-14-valley.html

https://youtu.be/YtAygiZQvbE

As the bride of Chris, “the bride” has also become another dominant motif lately.

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2019/10/true-bride-vs-false-bride.html

Looking back on the wedding, it was a particularly windy on the day Chris and I got married. Some of Chris’ colleagues started laughing about Chris and this wind because his job is “tunnel ventilation” engineering: ie. his job is to create wind artificially! Between the wedding and the reception, we went to a few places that has special meanings for us for photoshoots. One of the places we went to was the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the first place I have worked in as a doctor. We decided to take some photos at the new murals. I did not even look to see what was drawn on the wall. Interestingly, a month later, when our photographer Alex sent us the photos he took, the pictures reminded me of the visions from the Valley of Dry Bones! It seems as though God is speaking to us through the murals!

My job involves trying to restore people to health and wellbeing where possible, sometimes even making certain decisions that impacts the life and death of a person.

The question now is how can God use us to make a spiritual impact on others?

Eventually, Chris and I will be doing this together as a team. However, he is not quite “ready” currently, so I can only speak on my own behalf for now. I long for the wind that is the “ruah” or the Spirit. I long for the restoration of life that will last to eternity.

The calling to remain in the medical field is clear. This was the conviction I had when I listened to George Verwer’s message a few years ago: 

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2014/10/revival-prepare-thy-heart.html

So is the calling for missions.

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2016/09/mission-impossible.html

https://youtu.be/VtQbzRmmMfk

If you combine these together, the term “medical missionary” comes up. However, we are waiting on God’s reply as to “who, what, when, where, and how.”  

Meanwhile, we are to remain faithful in the current position God has placed us in as we wait on Him. 

true bride vs false bride

Your next steps: As you look back over the past few months and also look forward to 2020 - do you have a sense of where God is leading you? What do your next steps look like?

It's been a bit more than a month since I got married with Chris, and it is the Feast of Tabernacles this week. When I went to Jerusalem with the ICEJ group for the Feast of Tabernacles in 2015, we saw a huge wedding dress on the Tower of David.

During that trip, I even bought two bottles of the “Cana Wedding Wine” in Cana (and this was the passage we used for our wedding)!

This week, messages about the true bride vs the prostitute kept coming up recurrently from various places.

On Saturday, I watched an exegetic video on the Book of Revelations by Mei-Lun Chau 喬美崙老師, where she talked about the contrast between the Bride of Christ vs the Prostitute mentioned in Revelation 17-19. She emphasised that one is either a true bride, or a false bride. And the false bride = the Prostitute. There is no middle way.

On Sunday, the message at CABC-WR was on Hosea, the prophet who was commanded by God to marry a whore called Gomer. This marriage relationship between Gomer and Hosea symbolises the rebellion of the Israelites against God, ie. the covenant failure of Israel. A quote by Charles Spurgeon was used in this sermon: “If Christ is not all to you, he is nothing to you.”

That same evening, I did my spiritual devotional using the material by Crossroads Publications 宣教日引,  which happened to be on Revelations 2:22, which again talks about committing adultery (moicheuonta) and warns Christians against adultering with the world! Then, on Monday, one of the leaders of the short medical mission team I went to Vanuatu with shared this exact same devotional with the team!

Those who can understand Chinese, here were the sources:

https://youtu.be/b00DrEyFH3o?t=3448

https://www.cabc-wr.org/?sermons=20191013_%E9%A9%AC%E5%B9%BF%E5%B7%9D_%E6%B0%B8%E4%B8%8D%E6%94%B9%E5%8F%98%E7%9A%84%E7%88%B1&lang=zh-hans

http://www.missionpathway.org/mpData/topic2.cgi?imgdate=101319

Ok, it is quite clear that God is speaking to me here, reminding me about my position as a "Bride of Christ." I must admit that over the past few months, many things have occupied my mind and God is definitely not one of the first ones. My husband and the wedding itself seemed to occupy my mind a lot more than God! And also the fear about having to move to Melbourne if his work project is always in Melbourne (sorry, Melbournians, I like Sydney a lot better than Melbourne). I can only pray that God will give me the power to get my acts together again! Gotta realign with God first before we can know where God is leading us!

   

Community

Consider how your life story fits into and contributes toward the building of community in your sphere of influence. Remember your individual story fits into God’s larger story, the metanarrative - the overarching story of humankind. For Christians, this metanarrative is the biblical narrative of salvation history - creation, fall, redemption and finally, new creation.

The first thing that popped into my mind when I hear the word “community” is Eastwood. This is the place I spend the majority of my time in, because I am working as a GP there six days a week!

However, I am going to focus this journal entry on the Christian community. It was around 2013 when I came to realise that one can be extremely involved and devoted to a church without actually building deep interpersonal relationships. One can be doing heaps of “discipleship” courses without much discipleship happening. I had grown up task-orientated and goal-orientated because all the role models around me were like that. The church environment I was in was also task-orientated and goal-orientated. Church co-workers were given spreadsheets with tick boxes asking us to tick off the number of times we prayed and studied the bible during the week. Each church co-worker got assigned a few people who we had to regularly talk to and follow up on, and there was a tick box for that too. Although the environment drove us to do certain things, once I got out of that environment, I did not feel a desire to do these things spontaneously. I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with tick boxes to help us get organised. But some people (including me) may be ticking off these boxes without a genuine care for people and get a false sense of security that they are doing something for God whenever they ticked these boxes. There were a few deep interpersonal relationships formed from that environment which continued until today, but the proportion is very small when I take into account how many people I had fellowship with during my time there.

In 2016, I changed church in order to do my field education at a Baptist church. This church is great, but I did not have the guts or the energy to become very involved with the people in this church.

Another example of a Christian community experience was the short medical mission trip I went on this year with Care Ministries International (CMI). Teamwork happened in a pretty amazing fashion. I felt as though I had gone back into the New Testament era where the community of Christ lived together in love. During this trip, I felt a bit closer to where God wants me to be. There is also a sense of “inheritance” during this trip. The previous mission trips to Cambodia organised by CMI comprised of very experienced doctors and dentists around retirement age. This time, the doctors and dentists are mostly under 35, and including several “parent and child” pairings. More on the trip in the following link:

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2019/06/short-medical-mission-trip-to-vanuatu.html

Now, I am in a transitional period. My husband and I go to different churches. Chris is certain that he wants to stay in his church, which meant I am the one who has to make the switch. His church seems like a great church, and many brothers and sisters there have helped us out in our wedding. Rick Warren said, “We are created for community. You are called to belong, not just believe.” May the hand of God lead the way!

High times, hard times, hand of God

High times

High times are those periods in our lives that were especially meaningful in a positive way. An example might be a time when a particular talent was applauded by others and a decision was made to pursue that talent further in life.

In 2008, I made a decision to commit myself to attending and serving in one church. It was a low point in my life. I was a resident doctor in career crisis: I knew clearly what specialties I did not want to do, but had no idea what specialties I wanted to do. I did not think I will have any chance of getting a boyfriend if I continue the same lifestyle working in the hospital. I felt stuck and was pessimistic, with a heavy weight on the top of my head constantly. If God had not intervened, I would have become clinically depressed. Fortunately it was during a church camp that I suddenly felt such a strong presence of God’s Spirit amongst me that it filled me with joy and all the heaviness on the top of my head lifted off. Such a transformation occurred in me that I burned with passion for God and no longer felt so disgruntled against my parents. Subsequently, my mother, who was quite critical of my faith, accepted Jesus as her saviour!

Hard times

Hard times are those relationships, experiences or seasons in our lives that were particularly difficult or painful. An example might be a childhood move from one school to another that was hard and caused you to build up some defensive walls that have been difficult to break down ever since. Perhaps there’s been a relationship conflict that has not been restored.

Dr Paul Kang, who leads the transformational discipleship group I am currently attending, mentions there are scholarly articles which demonstrates that suffering act as a catalyst for spiritual formation! I agree. I find it very hard to remember God when things are going along smoothly, even though I may still be able to keep up the routines of attending church and praying. I tend to feel desperate for God when things do not go according to plan, or when I face a great “unknown” in front of me. In fact, it is quite easy to say “I’ve got faith in God” when things are relatively smooth sailing, when one is blessed like Job was in the beginning of the book of Job. However, when faced with suffering, that’s when we know what we are made of: some people may renounce their faith, some people’s faith actually grows stronger. However, there will always be a wrestle before the gold becomes refined.

In May 2013, my father suddenly passed away. This event radically changed my theology. At that time, I had a “prosperity gospel” type of theology. Things were smooth sailing in my life, as well as in the church I had been attending. The predominant theologies in the environment I was in was that “if you got faith, you can do anything… if something doesn’t go according to plan, that’s because you don’t have enough faith and  haven’t been praying hard enough… God always wants us to succeed,” etc.

Coinciding with the passing away of my father was a call from God for me to study in a seminary. I had to stay in Taiwan for four weeks to sort out things related to my father. I went to a praying room in one church and saw a seminary school pamphlet. I had been to this praying room several times in the past and never seen this type of pamphlet before. Then, I went to another church’s praying room, and saw another seminary school pamphlet. When I returned to Sydney, the friend whom I usually pray with suddenly mentioned to me, “the Baptist churches have a strong foundation in the Scriptures, and going to a Baptist seminary school will be great to build a good foundation.” That was when Morling College popped into my mind, as it was the closest seminary school to my home, and it is Baptist in denomination. Since then, growth began happening in a way that would never have happened if this difficult time had not occurred.

Hand of God

There are the times when God revealed His sovereignty and grace in our lives in a special way. Maybe at a particular time of need God sent just the right person with just the right perspective that enabled us to keep moving ahead in faith. Or perhaps His Word came “alive” to us at a critical point.

I see the hand of God working on my life and on those around me constantly, including the high times and hard times I’ve described previously, so I will just pick another example here.

I have always liked the verse on the fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23). However, I also see my inadequacy when I read this verse, as I am quite an impatient person, and often wished I could grow fruits at a much more rapid rate. Well, my prayer got answered when I encountered Chris, who is now my husband.

I encountered Chris briefly at church in 2008 because his cousin’s family and I used to attend the same church, and his aunt got admitted into RPA (the hospital I was working in) that year, so I became a bit more familiar with them as a result of that. Anyway, Chris came to check out the church I was attending and we shook hands. I had a negative impression of him during that encounter, but he added me on Facebook.

Then, in the second half of 2014, a series of events occurred. In July, an elderly man suddenly gave me a painting of plum blossoms with a Chinese poem which is essentially asking “what is love?” In that same week, our small group watched the film “Fireproof” which kind of answered that question (google "the love dare"). In that same week I noticed that one of the trees on my investment property suddenly blossomed flowers that looked exactly the same as the elderly man’s painting.

In late October, right before I left home to see a play called "Marriage" (where a sister from our small group, Naomi, played the bride), I noticed that the flowers outside the windows of the first room in my house were in full blossom, and couldn't help taking heaps of photos with the flowers outside the room.

Then, less a month later, the mysterious “plum” tree produced fruits, and it turned out to be a peach tree, which was a pleasant surprise as I like peaches much better than plums. It was around this time that Chris had a Facebook status update saying he’s been asked to vacate the rental property which had had been living in for seven years, because the owners wanted to renovate the place. I also had an empty room in my four bedroom shared house that I wanted to rent out, and was advertising it on my Facebook. It was the room where the flowers blossomed. I secretly thought to myself, “this annoying guy better not enquire about my place.” Then, in the beginning of 2015, Chris enquired about my place, because his next work project was located near my place.

As Chris returned to his car at the end of the inspection, we saw a butterfly at his windshield, flapping its wings furiously mid-air, but not moving anywhere at all (this looks a bit like when birds try to fly against the wind). We’ve never seen anything like this before. Chris said the butterfly had been there like that since he first got out of the car to inspect my house, which meant it had been like this for at least ten minutes. This unusual image stuck in my mind. Furthermore, he mentioned his project is only going to last for 6 months, which seemed very short term anyway. So I broke my usual rule of renting to females only, and rented this empty room to him.

Little did I know that once Chris moved in, he will never move out again.

When he first moved in, I was pleasantly surprised about how different he was compared to my initial impression of him. There were also many times where I got extremely annoyed by Chris’ rigid thinking and debating nature. However, each time I become like this, I get a supernatural sign happening along with a supernatural increase in my capacity to tolerate him. Many of these conflicts actually resulted in me seeing my own problems through self-introspection, and growing in a way I never would have if I had not encountered him. I knew that the hand of God is upon this encounter. This fruit-growing process continues repeating itself over and over again, and I believe it will continue until we return to our heavenly home.

Heroes

Heroes are those people whom God has used to play a part in shaping our character or influencing our direction. Perhaps there was a pastor or teacher whose encouragement created a desire to excel in a particular area. Seidel, "Life Story and Spiritual Formation."

I have a big dilemma when it comes to the term “heroes.” Since there is no such thing as a perfect human other than Jesus, and God commands us not to worship idols, the only human I can confidently call my hero is Jesus. I believe it is more appropriate to use the term "role model" when we talk about humans. There are certainly many people who I see as role models in my life, and many ancestors who have fought so hard to survive to make the current generation possible.

Recently the Ancestry DNA has matched me up with my second cousin once removed, and I was able to get a bit more information about the ancestral background of my paternal grandfather, who became orphaned at a young age. It turns out that my grandfather’s grandfather, Ju Wang, took the boat from Quanzhou to Taipei during late Ching dynasty (so my paternal line didn’t come to Taiwan as early as we had thought). He brought along his son Cheng Wang, but left behind an elder son in China. Cheng Wang's younger brother Ding Wang was my great grandfather. Ju Wang died young, leaving behind his young children to figure out for themselves how to survive in this strange land. Ding Wang and his wife Xiao-Hu Chen also died quite young, leaving my grandfather orphaned at a young age. Luckily, Cheng Wang adopted my grandfather. These days, despite his dementia, my grandfather still mentions that if his uncle didn’t adopt him back then, he would have been doomed. So I consider Cheng Wang to be a role model, to take on an additional child in an era where resources were very limited and people die like flies.

Ever since an young age, I felt inspired by my parents. To me, the stories of how they broke out of the poverty cycle because of their high achieving abilities sounded heroic. This in turn influenced my worldview and I had been very “performance oriented.” I had the tendency to look up to people who are high achievers. However, in the last five years or so, I gradually found out there is a trap to this type of mindset. I tend to get agitated when I see myself or others being “non-productive.” I have a tendency to see those who contribute more to society as being more valuable than those who don’t. Eventually I came to realise that no matter how dysfunctional an individual is, each human being is made in the image of God, and each human life is equally valuable in God’s eyes.

There are many other role models in my life, in the work place, in church, and some people whose stories I have read about in the Bible and in biographies, eg. George Leslie Mackay. Too many to name, and I believe this learning process will continue for the rest of my life.

Heritage

Heritage is the combined influences from our past that God has used to write our stories, to mould us, and to bring us where we are today: family influences, geography, natural gifting, genetics and temperament. Seidel, "Life Story and Spiritual Formation."

I was born in Taiwan, a region some people have nicknamed as "the orphan of Asia." The population of this region is comprised of people from three major waves of migration very distinct in terms of historical origin, language, custom, and culture. Having been under the control of various rulers we did not choose, the population is in an acute multilayer identity crisis. Personally, I would consider myself Taiwanese in nationality and Chinese in ethnicity. I had done the “Ancestry DNA test” which revealed I am 100% Chinese, which was very surprising for me because my ancestors were part of the migration wave from the Ming Dynasty approximately 400 years ago, and I had expected to have some indigenous Taiwanese ancestors.

My parents are both very high achievers, being the top of their classes in elementary and junior high school, always getting into their first preferences for high school and tertiary studies. In fact, my mother was nicknamed “100%” by her maths teacher at the Taipei First Girls’ High School because she always used to get 100% in her tests. Genetically I inherited some of that cleverness, and sailed along relatively smoothly study-wise and work-wise. However, my parents had pretty frustrating careers. My mother worked as a teacher for a few years and got too bored with that job, so she sat the diplomat exam and got into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was a difficult exam in general and they capped the number of positions for females so it was extremely difficult for a woman to become a diplomat. However, Taiwan has not had much success at building diplomatic relationships with other countries, and even the most skilled diplomat cannot change this situation.

Meanwhile, when my father did his mandatory military service in Taiwan, one can get a position as an army officer if they did well on an IQ based exam. He did very well and became a cannon officer in Kinmen. After the military service, my father worked as an electrical engineer. It was a luxury government job where he was given a high salary with hardly any work to do. However, living a semi-retired lifestyle most of his working life seemed to have an adverse effect on his brain. In fact, he seemed rather unmotivated and depressed most of the time.

Being a diplomat’s daughter meant that I grew up under many different cultures and find it difficult to identify which culture influenced what in my mindset and values. A lot of times I feel I don’t belong anywhere, and cannot identify any group of peers with whom I have a “sense of belonging” with. I followed my mother in my elementary school and middle school years, while my father worked in Taiwan. Subsequently I went off to New Zealand alone to study high school. On top of that, I am the only child. So I had been a very independent person most of my life and find it difficult to build relationships with people. Temperament wise, I am introverted. Furthermore, there seems to be autistic spectrum traits running on my father’s side of the family. This may have influenced my EQ, and I think my EQ is lower than the average female population.

It is by grace that I even have a relationship with God, as there were no Christians in my family to begin with. I was placed in a Christian kindergarten, which made me became aware of someone named Jesus. I was placed into a Sunday school, which my parents saw as a “free day care service” for Sundays. My family was able to access these services mainly because we lived in close proximity to churches and hospitals that were established in relation to George Leslie Mackay, one of the most influential missionaries in the history of Taiwan. Then, when I went to the US, a family friend influenced me to do the sinner’s prayer. When I went to New Zealand, my mother bumped into a nice Christian family at the airport and that was when I became 100% certain that the God described in Christianity is the true God.

The past influences described above meant that I tend to see things quite differently from others. When people say things or give me information, rather than taking things in without any questions, I tend to research further into it. I can understand why people hold very different perspectives on various matters, and wonder why people engage in certain futile debates instead of accepting that diversity is a fact of life and just “agreeing to disagree” on certain matters.

In terms of giftings, the spiritual gifts questionnaire say that I am gifted in the areas of faith, prophecy, teaching, wisdom and knowledge. However, I am a bit sceptical about questionnaires. One tends to discover their gifts in a communal setting. I have a clear calling in the area of “missions in the workplace” but have difficulty in grasping the concept of how one can bring Christianity into the workplace. It is unprofessional to go off on a tangent talking about God in a busy work setting. In fact, it is seen as offensive. Sure, people might admire you if you have good character, but you don’t have to be a Christian to practice good character. I find that even though I am influencing the physical health of the community in my work as a general practitioner, I do not think I have influenced anyone with the “spiritual gifts” described above (or, at least I don’t recall anyone telling me they are influenced by me in these areas). I do not recall being able to practice any of my gifts in the church setting either (other than perhaps preventing a few people from dying from some medical emergencies). I guess I am still asking God, “which piece of the puzzle does God want me to be?”

God's Story, Our Story

I continued enrolling in the Transformational Discipleship subject at Morling College while I wait for next year’s graduation ceremony. The theme this semester is “God’s story, Our story.” During prayer time of the first class on 31July, Dr Paul Kang played the song “Oceans”.

https://youtu.be/dy9nwe9_xzw

“Image management: a strategy to make life work. To “look normal,” be accepted, ad fit in like the rest… looking good in appearance, seeking academic achievement, being liked by everyone, responding appropriately to adults, being a “good Christian” – idols useful to make my life work apart from God.”

“Storytelling is the oldest tool of influence in human history. From ancient times, story has been a primary genre in the history of communication. For example, the very first words of Genesis: In the beginning.”[1]

“You can’t tell your story until you know it. And you can’t truly know it without owning your part in writing it. And you won’t write a really glorious story until you’ve wrestled with the Author who has already written long chapters of your life, many of them not to your liking.”[2]

“You are the only one who can live out the story God intended for you. No one else can live your story. Understanding your individual story as a vehicle for spiritual formation energises and frees you personally. You are the only one who can bring God’s glory through your story because it is your unique story. But don’t live your story in isolation. Understanding your story in light of this larger story, the ‘metanarrative’, encourages and gives relevance to corporate spiritual formation.”

“Looking at my life in the context of a story gives meaning and helps me accept more readily the ambiguities and disruptions in life.”

“Many people have never taken the time to step back and intentionally look back at our entire life, seeking to identify an overarching theme or identify lessons that God had continually been trying to teach us.”[3]

“Meaningful frustration is much easier to bear than meaningless frustration.”[4]

“We value individualism in our tradition, but individualistic Christianity is an oxymoron. The fact is we need other human beings and meaningful relationships to grow.”[5]

“One cannot understand the individual part in isolation from the whole because we are intricately connected with others.”[6]

Personally, I find it more useful to learn from the narratives/stories in the bible. It is more helpful for me to learn from the lives of the people than just taking a verse and declaring it like a formula. In fact, I think there is a danger in turning things into formulas. Recently, the author of the 1997 bestseller “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” got divorced and said he is no longer a Christian.

https://religionnews.com/2019/07/26/joshua-harris-and-the-sexual-prosperity-gospel/

Some people, eg. Katelyn Beaty (the author of the article above), have accused him of preaching the “sexual prosperity gospel,” which holds that God will reward premarital chastity with a good Christian spouse, great sex and perpetual marital fulfillment.

“The giveaway of any prosperity teaching is an “if/then” formula: If you do this, then you will get this. If you put a $100 bill in the offering plate, then you will get tenfold back. If you stay chaste now, then you will later be blessed by marriage and children.”

“Like all powerful myths, it offers the illusion of control in an unpredictable world. We are most tempted to adopt prosperity teachings for our greatest areas of vulnerability. This is why health and wealth teachings typically attract the financially struggling, and why the promise of sexual and marital fulfillment attracted so many sexually frustrated Christian teenagers.”

Meanwhile, this song floated into my mind (click subtitles for the English translation, which is not 100% spot on but caught most of the essence):

https://youtu.be/83I_5lq5MwI

I know about God's story through the bible and through some personal life experiences. I know my story as I reflect often on my own life. I think I need to explore further into the concept of "corporate" spiritual formation. I can only do so by becoming more involved in the lives of people around me.

Anyway, here goes the story:

Heritage:
https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2019/08/heritage.html

Heroes:
https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2019/08/heroes.html

High times, hard times, hand of God:
https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2019/09/high-times-hard-times-hand-of-god.html

Community:
https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2019/10/community.html

True bride vs false bride:
https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2019/10/true-bride-vs-false-bride.html

Visions and recurring motifs: the call of God, and making an impact:
https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2019/10/visions-and-recurring-motifs-call-of.html

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[1] Gail Seidel, "Life Story and Spiritual Formation," in Foundations of Spiritual Formation : A Community Approach to Becoming Like Christ, ed. Paul Pettit(Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2008).  

[2] Dan B. Allender, To Be Told : Know Your Story, Shape Your Life, 1st ed.(Colorado Springs, Colo.: Waterbrook Press, 2005).  

[3] Seidel, "Life Story and Spiritual Formation."

[4] Annette Simmons, The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, ad Persuasion Through the Art of Storytelling, (New York: Perseus Books Group, 2002), 37.

[5] Dieter Zander, “The Apprentices,” Leadership 26 (2005): 25.

[6] Seidel, "Life Story and Spiritual Formation."