If you are familiar with this expression then perhaps: 1. You know of a friend who desperately attempts to tell funny/sad/wonderful stories, but try as they may they fail. Or, my personal favorite, 2. YOU are the bad storyteller. At the end of the story when laughs don’t arrive you can pull the ‘and then I found five dollars’ expression and you’re golden! Because worse comes to worse your story was horrible but you found five dollars.
*(Disclaimer: you didn’t have to actually find five dollars).
Okay, now I’m going to get vulnerable with you guys. Brace yourself, I am person #2, I am the bad storyteller. I have always been fascinated and intrigued by people that could capture the attention of a crowd. Make them laugh or smile simply by telling a story. My favorite people are funny people, and normally funny people are known for their stories. However, try as I might I am simply not a good storyteller. This is normally how one of my stories breaks down:
- The story begins. A simple explanation of who, what, where, and why. The norm, usually I get through this part really well.
- I’m explaining the story, but then I see the finish line and I see the punch line, or as I like to call it, the zinger, at the end. This is normally where my story starts to break down.
- I’m laughing. As in nobody around me understands the story but I think it’s hilarious because I’m replaying it in my mind. By the time I figure out I still need to say the ending they’re giving me strange looks and I realize I have lost my audience.
- ‘And then I found five dollars’ (cue the pity laughter)
Now I am happy to say that not every single one of my stories begin and end like the one above, however it is fairly common. Which got me thinking, how do I become a great storyteller, what can I say or do to get people to stay interested long enough for the punch line.
Then I started to laugh to myself. I know the greatest story out there, it has the best characters, the best intro and conclusion, and the best zinger. The greatest part is that the zinger is love, and that the story is the Gospel. The Gospel is such an incredibly beautiful story of love, sacrifice, and obedience. I was sitting in Easter Service this past weekend and I couldn’t help but be drawn in to the story the pastor was telling. There was no flair, not gimmicks, no need for fluff. Even though I have heard the story a million and one times, it is still the most captivating and wonderful story I have ever heard. The introduction couldn’t start any sweeter and the ending couldn’t have been more wonderful. I become a great storyteller when I get the opportunity to share the Gospel, not because it has anything to do with me, but because it’s simply the greatest story ever written. The even better part, it’s not a story, it’s truth and it’s truth that continually changes peoples lives. With this incredible story of love, heartbreak, and forgiveness there will never be the need for me to “spice it up” with my signature, “and then I found five dollars”… Maybe as I continue through this journey of preparing for the World Race and telling others all about the adventures yet to come I hope and pray that these stories don’t end with funny quotes or five dollars, but I hope they end with people seeing the love and grace of my Savior. I want these stories to glorify my King and to end with others saying, believing, and realizing that they have seen their Savior.
Until next time friends,
The Storyteller
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved”- Ephesians 2:4-5
