When an idea continues to come back to me through people or stories or events, I try to pay attention. (After all, part of how I ended up in Liberia was because I suddenly started meeting MANY Liberians. It was a neat way my heart was drawn to the suffering of the people and of how I really began to see the need for storytelling in Liberia.) I'm not superstitious. Maybe it's just the way my English major mind works or maybe it's how God uses circumstance and people to teach us. But I like picking up on the new "themes" running through my life. I believe that I have much to learn from those who have gone before me, and I look for ways to connect my struggles with the wisdom out there.
This week, the message I'm picking up on is hope. I've been thinking more critically about my reporting. I've really been challenged to think about the message of hope in my stories about Liberia -- whether it's there or there enough. As a reporter, it's so easy to be drawn to all of the destruction and pain and needs of Liberia. I think reporters need to tell stories like that -- to inform a readership that doesn't get regular opportunities to learn about what is going on in places of real suffering.
But it's also true that suffering is not the only story. There are so many stories of hope. Redemption still is at work, although sometimes its movement is more subtle. Thoughts?
Also, see the two video clips below that are helping me to think about the message of hope in storytelling.
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