Stories

There’s a reason Jesus taught in stories. Stories help us understand life…see it more clearly, maybe is a better way to say it. He was the greatest storyteller of all time. Two thousand years later and His stories still change people…from the inside out. Forty one years of this life have taught me a lot of things, but no lesson greater than learning to let Him write His story through me. I think that’s what I’ve learned most…that He wants to write His story through me. And His stories are way better than mine. In His stories seas are parted, water becomes wine, the lame walk, and the dead are raised to life again. I don’t have any stories like that. I believe with all my heart that there will be a day that I sit at His table. On that day…I want to know that I gave myself completely to the story He wanted to write in me and not my own. 

I’ve spent all twenty years of my working career in schools. It’s all I’ve done and all I’ve known. So when I sat at the table with one of my good friends and heard his heart to build a multi-purpose non-profit facility and cafe to support special needs children and their families and other people in need, it was like seeing a vision from the Lord. And when he asked me to join him in making his dream a reality…honestly, it didn’t make a lot of logical sense. It seemed like I would be taking a huge risk. But then there are the stories…you know, the ones in the book that I want to be sold out too. It’s full of stories of people who took illogical risks, insurmountable risks…with God on their side. They sacrificed what was best for themselves to do what God had called them to do for the benefit of His Kingdom. And all I could think about is sitting at that table and hearing Him say, “Adam, I had so much more for your story, if you had just been willing to take the risk.”

So I’ve left everything I know in pursuit of a risk…but God’s risk and my dream to wrecklessly pursue His story through me. I spent twenty years working in schools teaching math, Bible, PE, even a science class, coaching, and being an assistant principal. I’ve met a lot of great people and been a part of the lives of so many children. Through those years, God wrote a large part of my story and hopefully the stories of others. Now I’m beginning a journey to chase a different dream. I don’t really know what I’m doing or how to do it. I don’t have a map or a strategic plan. I don’t even know if it has ever been done before. But I do know this, plans come from men but vision comes from God. I don’t want to spend my life making plans. I want to spend it being used to unfold visions. 

He was the greatest storyteller of all time. And He wants to write His story through us. I can’t imagine a greater reward…no matter the cost. I would imagine He told Himself that over and over, all the way to the cross.