Stories are powerful. Stories provide meaning.
Postmodern historians make the point that when we write history, we aren't really recounting past events, but telling a story by plotting out past events. When we write history, we use the normal literary devices that we would to tell any other story. Postmodern historians would argue that because of this, history is simply literary. Here we would disagree, but they make good point. Hayden White indicates that one historian can form past events into a tragedy and another can form past events into a comedy. Compare World War 2 histories from an American perspective versus a Japanese perspective and you'll see some real differences.
On the other hand we relate to one another through stories. Stories help us validate our own experiences, or help us think through how we ought to think about our own experiences. They evoke all of our emotions: happiness, fear, pain. Yet even when we come away from a sad story, we're rarely sorry that we shared the experience. Even when we don't like a story, we define our own story in contrast to it. It is through story that we begin to develop what our own life's mean.
When we think about our own spiritual past, we interpret these events through our worldview. This in turn will impact how we view our future, how we do things, our practical theology. The Bible tells the story that God has for us. The entire Bible, from Genesis 1–3 to Revelation 21–22, tells a story of loss and redemption. The Christian life is about re-orientating our own lives around the truth of the Gospel and the love that God and begin to look at our past through the redemptive lenses that he has provides for us.
