True Story [Independence Day - Deuteronomy 10:17-21]
The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Deuteronomy 10:17-21 True Story I have a family story, as do you. I suspect mine is neither better nor worse than your own. Because my family story, like all family stories, is one of riches and poverty. It is a story of both sorrow and beauty, of shame and pride, of love and pain. I, at times, embrace this rugged history; and then, just as intensely, try to distance myself from the most dismal of its chapters. But what I cannot deny is that the story is mine; it marks my soul in the best and worst ways. It shapes me even as I hope to shape its destiny into something of which my children and my children’s children can be proud. There is always a temptation to tell an edited version of our stories, to hide away the darkest and most devastating chapters. But the power of a family story is found in our willingness to tell it as a true story – as painful and, at times, as embarra...