Pentecost & the Stories that Change Us

A few weeks ago, I sat with a woman in spiritual direction. She was tired. Not just physically tired, but soul weary. Her words came slowly. She told me that for years she had been someone others leaned on. She had led well. She had served faithfully. But lately, she felt like her life had lost its shape.

“I don’t know who I am anymore,” she said. “I’m still doing the work, but it feels like I’m not really there.”

We sat in silence for a moment. Then I gently asked if she could remember a time when she felt most connected to herself and to God. She closed her eyes and thought. After a while, she spoke of a gathering years ago with women she had mentored. They were sharing stories and praying together. One of them turned to her and said, “You helped me remember who I am.”

As she recalled that moment, something softened. Her relaxed into her chair. She had not thought about that experience in years, but it came back like a warm light.

That is often how God meets us. Not with something new, but with something true that we had forgotten.

Pentecost and the Recovery of Voice

The story of Pentecost is a story of people who had also grown quiet. The apostles had followed Jesus closely, but after his death and resurrection, they were unsure of what came next. They gathered in prayer, not knowing what they were waiting for. And then, something unexpected happened.

The Holy Spirit came. Not with explanations, but with presence. The apostles began to speak, and people from all over the world heard them in their own language. There was no striving. Just Spirit-filled speech. Each person who listened recognized something familiar in what they heard. The message reached them where they were.

Pentecost is not just a dramatic moment in history. It is a picture of how God meets people who feel unsure, quiet, or lost. The Holy Spirit gives voice again. The Holy Spirit reconnects people to their story and to the presence of God within it.

The Power of the Stories We Carry

We all live with stories. Some are handed to us by others. Some are shaped by experience. Some grow from wounds. Over time, these stories become the lens through which we see ourselves and God.

In spiritual direction, we take time to notice these stories. We ask where they began. We wonder whether they are still true. We listen for God’s voice within them. At Fermata, I often meet with people who have given much of themselves to others. Many of them are tired. Some feel like their work no longer matters. Others feel stuck in patterns that no longer reflect who they are. But again and again, I see how listening to one’s story with God opens space for renewal.

One woman who came in feeling disoriented began to speak about a time of joy and clarity in her past. As we followed that thread together, she began to see that her life still held the same values. She was not lost. She was just in a season of transition. Her story was still unfolding.

A Way to Begin Again

The process of reauthoring a story does not mean changing the facts. It means returning to them with God’s help and asking what else might be true. It means looking at familiar memories and seeing them through the lens of grace.

The apostles at Pentecost did not receive a new plan. They received a deeper awareness of who they already were. They spoke with courage not because they had figured everything out, but because the Spirit was with them. That presence gave them strength.

We are invited into the same process. By telling our stories honestly and openly, we make space for God to meet us in them. We do not need to have the right words. We only need to be willing to listen.

An Invitation to Reflect

What stories are shaping your life right now? Are they full of grace and truth, or are they marked by pressure and shame? Can you remember a time when you felt close to God, or at peace in your own skin?

These moments are not lost. They are part of the path that brought you here. They still speak.

At Fermata Ministries, we create space for people to listen to their stories with God. We do not rush. We do not fix. We pay attention. Over time, people begin to hear something new. Or maybe something old that they had forgotten.

You are not finished. Your story is still being written.

The Spirit who spoke at Pentecost is still speaking to you now. I invite you to walk alongside a spiritual director to listen to that life-giving voice, and take courage to step into the story God has for you.