How Does a Christian Write His Biography?

If you think you’ve got a worthwhile story to tell other than reasoning it out with God, here are some tips: pray, think like a Christian, and check your memory. Many of my friends and acquaintances talk about writing an autobiography at the senior stage of their lives. Well, not everyone is interested, save for God himself, and I’ll tell you why. It had better be an adventure, not a routine. Living a life of routine may be acceptable to God. He might have wanted it that way for you. But people want to read about an adventurous life, packed with meaning and insights. To this author, a magnanimous life is what we should aspire to: a fulfilling life, full of adventure and accomplishments, and a creative life. God is creative.

And so we begin this endeavor with prayer. With prayer, we align ourselves with God as we trace our transformations and strengths throughout the journey. This is only to find that we should have been praying all along. At this point in time, the alignment is for accuracy in biographical memory, too late for the rest. For if you want a magnanimous life, humility should follow at least; humility, too, should have always been there. Throughout, we need to focus on the love of God and how Christ was involved at each stage, event, and experience. With this focus, memory and recall are honest, humble, and accurate. Along with this, healthy cognition is required. Do you have it?

Cognition and Memory

Studies show that the elderly are more likely to overestimate their overall performance and underestimate how they have changed in their lives. Therefore, accuracy is of prime concern. With that, details of events and experiences may be missing. We think in schemas, or generalized knowledge of past situations, not details. It takes a special expertise to help focus on the situation. When I say expertise, I mean a special concentration of events at the time, for whatever reason. Ever wonder how athletes can remember details of a basket made in basketball, a catch and throw in baseball, a touchdown in football some 10 to 15 years past, and even what they said to their teammates? They totally concentrated on the situation; it was their expertise that got them there, and they followed through with it. Were you mindful and focused, sober, and alert? This helps the memory.

Having frequented many assisted living homes and Alzheimer wings within such homes, I have witnessed patients and residents participating in temporal lobe checklist assessments. The elderly experience a withering away of temporal lobe functioning due to lifestyle, health, and aging. Should a resident experience increased irritability, spaciness, confusion, panic attacks, episodes of paranoia, periods of forgetfulness, and preoccupations with religious ideas [believe it or not], there is a good chance of diminishing temporal lobe functions. Check this out for yourself. As this writer sees it, and for a writer’s purpose in this endeavor, silence and prayer beget accuracy.    

Temporal Reality

When I write about temporal reality, I refer to emotions and moods at the time, especially during short-term events. This is often miscalculated by the elderly, causing inaccurate assessments of the particular recollections. Eyewitnesses can be useful for corroboration and other perspectives. Beyond this, the word ‘temporal’ is related to the temporal lobe of our brains, as explained above.

Often in our lives, some more than others, we wandered away from the faith and away from God. We pay the price up until the end. Disciplined prayer can help us remember. Prayer and solitude are needed more so at these times for those needing to recollect experiences and temporal reality. I can summarily say that finding God in retirement years requires a labor of praying, reading, and performing appropriate duties for this state of life. It both raises our minds and hearts to God and allows for clearer assessments of the past. You may not remember it at that exact time of prayer, but it will return to you that week, that month if you keep focusing on your agenda.

Society, Deceptions, Maturity

Our relationship to the secular world can do a job on one’s self-esteem. Thus, we cannot think more highly than we ought to think, but rather soberly, according to our faith and prayer. Which societal institution and segment of it were we a part of? What was our purpose? What role were we playing? What consequences, positive or negative, resulted? How great were the consequences? It is kind of like in Romans 1 which explains the parts of the body and all of the interrelating functions, supporting or diminishing each other.

As Christian thinkers, we cannot omit God’s beckoning in this adventure, how He saved us and called us into a holy life. Psalm 23 tells us that the Lord will give us everything we need in life, being with us all the way. “Only goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life.” He will give us the meaning of everything, too. This is mature thinking with God in your midst. As our lives proceed, we find ourselves drawing closer to God. Why is that? It is because our suffering breaks us from sin and we become more devoted to Him. This should be a part of our story. We do so in a nonboastful way, not considering ourselves wise, but rather as one who received first forgiveness and then His mercy. We delude ourselves if we think we are something, when we are nothing. Christian autobiographies are more realistic and honest with this approach. Well, that is from Galatians 6. Finally, our perseverance, our freedom to choose in society, and the choices themselves are all part and parcel of a Christian story, a descriptive, explainable adventure.

Conclusion  

This can truly be quite an endeavor and undertaking. It could be up to a year to compile, organize, and create a life’s story that took 70 or 80 plus years. Yet, the weight of time is but a measure of the grace woven into every season. As we look back, we recognize the need for prayer in this process. It is through constant communion with the Divine that we discern the threads of purpose amidst the tapestry of our memories. Each chapter becomes a testament to a life sustained by unseen hands, a narrative that honors the legacy of faith. By documenting these moments, we not only preserve the sanctity of our personal history, but also provide a compass for future generations.

Cognitive responsibilities must be recognized as an act of stewardship. Our cognition allows us to portray the reality of the moments and the adventures they fill; the mistakes and the mercies granted; the redemptions and transformations realized; plus the society through which we traversed. Mental health, honesty, humility, and Christian virtue serve as the bedrock of this endeavor.

Related Source: Baglino, Michael J. Europe Meets Florida: Encounters With Psychology, Culture, and Religion. 2023. 

www.michaelbaglino.com/speaker