To Be Told: God Invites You to Coauthor Your Future [Paperback]

Dan B. Allender (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 7, 2006

Would you willingly overlook clear direction from God that speaks directly to you and where you are in life right now?

God’s guidance is near at hand. He is not only your Authority, he is also your Author. As God writes the stories of your life, he uses your past to open up your future.

It is your privilege to listen to your own story so you can live boldly for the sake of the Greatest Story, the good news of Jesus Christ. God reveals himself to you–and to others–through the story he has written in your life.
In this insightful and compelling book, Dr. Dan B. Allender shows you how to read the stories of your life. He helps you understand the meaning that God has written into every detail of who you are. As a result, you can share your story with others and listen to their story, revealing unique aspects of God’s hand at work.

Starting today, you can find deeper meaning in your story–a story To Be Told.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a book worth reading. Because this is a journey worth taking. To know who you are. To make sense of your life. To discover the role God is giving you in His story. That is a life worth living. Thank you, Dan, for a wonderful book!"
--John Eldredge, bestselling author of Wild at Heart

From the Back Cover

"This is a book worth reading. Because this is a journey worth taking. To know who you are. To make sense of your life. To discover the role God is giving you in His story. That is a life worth living. Thank you, Dan, for a wonderful book!"
--John Eldredge, bestselling author of Wild at Heart --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press; Reprint edition (November 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578569516
• ISBN-13: 978-1578569519
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Dan Allender received his MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary and his PhD in counseling psychology from Michigan State University.

Dan taught in the biblical counseling department of Grace Theological Seminary for seven years (1983-1989). From 1989-1997 he worked as a professor in the Master of Arts in biblical counseling program at Colorado Christian University, Denver, Colorado. Currently, Dan serves as president and professor of counseling at Mars Hill Graduate School in Bothell, Washington.

He travels and speaks extensively to present his unique perspective on sexual abuse recovery, love and forgiveness, worship, and other related topics. He is the author of "The Wounded Heart" (NavPress), "The Healing Path," and "How Children Raise Parents" (Waterbrook Press) and has coauthored four books with Dr. Tremper Longman, III--"Intimate Allies" (Tyndale House Publishers), "The Cry of the Soul" (NavPress), "Bold Love" (NavPress), and "Bold Purpose," (Tyndale House Publishers). He and his wife, Rebecca, live in the Puget Sound area with their three children, Annie, Amanda, and Andrew.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 68 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful guide for living an intentional Christian Life March 2, 2005

By FaithfulReader.com

Format:Hardcover

In his latest book, TO BE TOLD, Dan Allender encourages readers to examine their lives in a search for the story that God is telling through their existence. Allender says we often don't know our own stories because we doubt their existence, dismiss their importance, or we're distracted.

"Too many people are missing their story because they're watching the stories of others. We live vicariously through television, sports, magazine, and talk shows. Such stories may occasionally educate us, but most often they sedate us. They free us from admitting that our own life is dull and lifeless. They attract us because they offer life without risk. They are deathly safe."

Fans of John Eldredge's writing, especially THE SACRED ROMANCE, will find similar themes of brokenness, revelation, desire, and narrative redemption here.

"Something must awaken us to the fact that we are asleep. And what awakens us is usually a moment of exposure when we see that the conventions that guide our steps and promise us a good life are nothing more than illusions."

"The stories told in most families are a kind of propaganda."

"You must listen to the heartache and hope that etched in the narrative of your life. And you must find the meaning God has written there."

"Your plight is your redemption."

"Desire is both our greatest frailty and the mark of our highest beauty."

Allender has a humble and disarming tone that is humorous and relatable. It can be hard at times to wade through the jargon of "story" --- feasting on story, editing together, writing your destiny ... what does all that mean? But the effort to truly understand what Allender is getting at is worth it. In essence, he's trying to get people to remember. It sounds simple, but it's not given that so many people have a dysfunctional relationship with the past. Whether good or bad, it can be hard to deal with, and so people tend to forget. But by entering into the past, Allender says that we can understand the present and help write our futures.

"God is the Potter, and we are the clay. Even the word human --- derived from the Latin word humus, meaning "dirt" --- shouts loudly about our origin. We are dirt. The name Adam (Hebrew 'adama) means "red," the color of clay. God shaped, molded, and formed us to reveal something about himself. He is a Being who loves to reveal and who invites us to join the process of revelation by calling to ask, seek and knock. God always intended for his children to join him in completing creation. We are no inanimate entities that merely reveal glory but living stories that are meant to create glory."

In other words, by seeing and understanding the stories God is telling through our lives, we can be more alive.

TO BE TOLD will provide insight for just about everyone interested in living an intentional Christian life. In addition to his wise observations about life, Allender gets practical in his suggestions for knowing one's story, including fasting, prayer, and of course, writing. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if a bit of a memoir-writing fad ensues. And frankly, if Allender is right, we'd be better off for it.

--- Reviewed by Lisa Ann Cockrel

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended!! March 17, 2005

By PhilThreeten

Format:Hardcover

Dan Allender in his book, "To Be Told" presents both the tools and the inspiration for each of us to understand the stories that God has written in our lives. By understanding the story that God has written in the past, he contends that it will help us to understand the direction that God would have us to take for the future.

Allender does a great job in this book of presenting a method for understanding the difficulties of our past. His sharing of his own difficult background shows that he personally knows of that which he speaks. And since he keeps it simple it is accessible to anyone.

One area that I wish Allender had done a better job of was to broaden the application of understanding our stories. Although dealing with the past and understanding the direction for the future are both important applications, I think that there may be a whole host of others.

However, that small difference aside, Allender's book is well-written and includes powerful practical ideas on how to understand how God is writing your life. I highly recommend it and the accompanying workbook.

For a longer review, go to the blog listed in my nickname and click on the 'Reading' category.

(...)

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful view of your story and God's story March 2, 2010

By Laurence T. Baxter VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

To Be Told is a unique book, a challenge and inspiration for people to take a close look at their own story, what God has been doing in their life, to gain insight as to what the Author has in store for the rest of story. More than that, it challenges us to become willing and active co-authors in that story. Dan Allender also makes a case for doing this in community, becoming listeners and editors in each others tales. Over the course of the book, he shares freely from his own story, getting extremely personal at times - which helps us understand his call to understand your Real self. Although the book is more than the sum of its components or a how-to book, here is the table of contents.

Part One: Your Name and Your Story
1. The Tale to be Told (Reading your life as God has written it)
2. What's Your Real Name
3. What Makes a Good Story (A better way to read your tragedies)
Part Two: Reading Your Story
4. Listening to what moves you
5. Facing the Tragedy that Shapes you
6. Getting Caught by your Calling
Part Three: Writing your Story
7. Writing your Destiny
8. Editing Together
Part Four: Multiplying Your Story
9. Story Feasting
10. Prayer that Reveals
11. The Fruit of Fasting
12. Giving Away Your Story (Allow your story to reveal God)

From the style of the book, I can see where many readers will be blown away by the power of the book, while others might well scratch their head and wonder "What am I supposed to do with this?" While the book offers questions for the readers to consider as they ponder their own story, there is a separate workbook that offers much more of a guided journey to understanding your story. (The book itself has too few questions, the workbook perhaps too many!?) Quotes praising the book are provided from John Eldredge, Brian McLaren, Stanley Grenz, and others. Readers with a strong artistic/creative side who revel in "story" will likely love this book. Those who scratch their heads confused by books like Wild at Heart or Epic (by Eldredge) may likewise have trouble connecting the dots with Allender's book. As an engineer I found myself somewhere in the middle - I really enjoyed the chapters on a better way to read tragedies and on getting caught by your calling but started to get lost in the second half of the book. It's an interesting read by itself, but those willing to actually put their own stories to paper will get the most out of To Be Told.