Connections Archive
Devotional: Listen to the story
02 March 2010
Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
Everybody has a story.
I was thinking about this on Monday (March 1) when I wandered into the Chan Shun Auditorium on the Lake Macquarie campus as students registered for this year. They're beginning to write a new chapter in their story.
Students bring their story with them. For new students Avondale is now becoming a part of their experience. They're in a new place, with new challenges and an uncertain future. Scary. Challenging. Exciting.
Their story makes them different. Sure, you can pigeonhole some things about students and say their average age is about 19.5 years. The majority will probably have a Seventh-day Adventist background. You could even find out the average height, with a little work.
That's good for some kind of statistical analysis or to get an impression of the big picture, and to begin to understand the demographic that are the students of 2010. But that does little to help understand individual students. It's only as you listen to their stories that you get to know them.
You discover some come with a sense of purpose and feel they're following their life calling. Some will talk about God bringing them to Avondale. Some aren't sure why they're here, it's something to do while they work it out. Some are simply testing out an area they think might become their life passion.
And they bring their passions, skills, wins, losses, hopes, fears, joys and sorrows bundled in a package that fits them. You discover about these kinds of things as they share their story.
In sharing our story, we share ourselves. In hearing another's story, we learn.
Take the time to ask, "What's your story?" See what happens. What will you say when someone asks you the same question?
Everybody has a story.
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