Story Group Experience: Music Worth Sharing

Joshua Beasley lives in Seattle, WA. Here he shares his experience of participating in our Fall 2013 Story Group series. Spring 2014 Story Groups begin February 4.

So, it’s a pretty funny story. I was going to quit writing this blog entirely because no matter how much I labored, I felt like what I produced was not up to par. How fitting, then, that a core theme from my life that I faced and explored in my Story Group is the same theme I am facing today as I attempt to write this: not being up to par. I am realizing more and more that the work I have done in the Story Group has touched and illuminated every part of my life.

When I came into the Story Group, I didn’t believe I had a good story. I had never experienced any major trauma, or any deaths in my family that I believed would make my story worth hearing. However, as the Story Group went on and I began to acknowledge the pain and hurt in my story that I had pushed aside for years, I began to experience the value in my story. I began to believe that I had a story worth sharing.

I studied music at Western Kentucky University for four years. During that time I stopped being proud of the music I was writing. No matter how much I tried, it never seemed to add up to enough—never made the cut. In 6 years, I wrote many an unfinished song here and there, but nothing I felt I could share in any more than a camp fire setting.

Through my time in the Story Group, I began to believe that I had a good story—a story worth sharing. I began to believe that I had a song to sing—a song that was worth sharing. So, I wrote music for the first time in 6 years! Since the beginning of the Story Group 4 months ago, I have written 5 songs which I performed at a benefit show for Falling Whistles, and for numerous open mic nights at Conor Byrne Pub. Small beginnings it may seem to everyone else, but I cannot begin to convey how much I have labored to write music these last 6 years.

It seems that the issues I faced and explored within the Story Group weren’t restricted to the time we had together in our meetings, but they were thematic issues that I face every day — even today, while writing this blog. I am realizing more and more that the work I have done in the Story Group has touched every part of my life. I now believe in the goodness of my story, I now believe in the goodness of the music I’ve been writing, and I believe in the goodness of the work that is being done in the Story Groups through The Allender Center.

Story Groups are short-term intensive small groups that meet weekly for 10 sessions in Seattle, WA. They are created for the purpose of personal growth and transformation by exploring how your life experiences have shaped you into who you are today. Join a Story Group to experience care and gain discernment on how your personal story impacts your current way of understanding and relating to yourself, others, and God.

Spring 2014 Story Groups begin Tuesday, February 4. There are a few spaces remaining.