What Story Do You Live By?

On the stories that make sense of life, the communities that share them, and the difference between How and Why questions.

Now that I’ve been showing my face in church for six months, and I’ve begun tentatively mentioning that fact in mixed company, I’ve been asked the same question over and over again. Are you a Christian? Not a wildly inappropriate thing to ask in the circumstances, and yet every time I hear it, I go into cognitive panic mode.

I keep reaching for something both informative and entertaining to say, a witty quip, perhaps, that alludes to the cards in my hand without having to place them face up on the table. The problem is that I’m not even sure what cards I’m holding, religiously speaking, so I invariably say something opaque and confusing rather than suggestive of an answer or a working brain.

I usually stumble over some abortive efforts at discussing the nature of belief, then offer a handful of half-formed sentiments about “cultural Christianity” versus “traditional faith”. Finally, I land on what seems to be the least untrue answer I can currently give — “no” — or I borrow from the ver…