Week 2: Rags to Riches
Christopher Booker, author of “The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories” says that in every Rags to Riches story, the “riches” are symbolic. They represent the moment when someone realizes: “I am more than I believed. I am more than what happened to me. I am more than the story I’ve been living inside.” The riches aren’t wealth or status, but identity: a deeper self, a calling, a future.
We used wisdom from the story of the bent-over woman (Luke 13:10–17), and scenes from the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” to illustrate how this narrative arc can show itself in the midst of any of our lives. We traced the movement:
being bent down (unrecognized worth/isolation/disconnection) → recognition → standing tall/inner transformation → joy/connection with community
When we recognize this story in our living, we’re looking at the places where we are feeling some isolation or disconnection, where the fullness of who we are might be hidden, even from ourselves, and where we might hold beliefs that are keeping us small. And into that place, seek to be seen, to recognize something in ourselves, and allow that to help us stand taller into a new identity, a new calling, a new way of being, and rising into a dignity that has always been ours to claim.
Questions for Contemplation:
- Where in your life do you feel bent down or unseen?
- What story have you been telling yourself that might not be the whole story?
- Where might you be ready to soften a certainty or loosen a judgment about yourself?
- What inner strength or wisdom is beginning to rise in you?
- What small gesture of support — receiving or offering — feels possible right now?
- What would it feel like in your body to stand tall in who you’re becoming?
Be Part of the Conversation
Feel free to leave a comment about whether these questions were helpful or any of your thoughts as you reflected.