I love hearing people’s stories.
Memories from the past, chance encounters with people who changed everything, embarrassing childhood moments that have somehow become family legend. When people share things that matter to them, you start to see who they really are. It helps me understand them better. It means I know what might make them smile, what might hurt, and when they might need a bit of extra TLC.
This evening in the pub, the stories went a little deeper. We started talking about calling. How we first came to faith, and how we ended up where we are now.
There is a calling on every life. For some that might be parenthood, for others singleness. Some are called to offices and classrooms, some to hospitals or building sites, some to ministry. The shape of the calling is different, but the God who calls is the same.
What struck me tonight was just how different our stories were. One person spoke about the words of trusted friends who helped them recognise what God was doing. Another described moments when art and music stirred something deep inside. Someone else spoke about a series of small decisions which only later revealed a much bigger picture.
Each story was completely unique. And the interesting thing was the way one person heard God probably wouldn’t have worked for someone else.
Psalm 139 says, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Jesus also tells us that even the hairs of our head are counted. God knows us intimately. He knows our personalities, our fears, our stubborn streaks(!), and the things that move our hearts. Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us, then, that God speaks to each of us differently. The call comes in a way that we can hear.
In fact, this is how God has always called people. Moses encountered God in the burning bush while going about an ordinary day. Samuel heard his name in the quiet of the night. Lydia responded while listening to teaching beside a river. Paul’s call was far more dramatic, meeting Jesus in a blinding moment on the road to Damascus. Different people, different moments, different experiences, yet the same God, calling each one in a way they could recognise.
Some people might feel that they’ve never experienced anything like that. Perhaps life feels more like muddling through and doing the best you can. I understand that feeling too.
Sometimes God seems quiet. Sometimes the timing isn’t right yet. Sometimes we’re not sure if what we’re sensing really is God, so we ignore it. And sometimes, if we’re honest, we simply don’t want to hear it and head off in a different direction.
But the good news is that God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows when we’re ready. He knows when the moment is right. And if we wander off course, he is remarkably patient in calling us back.
Perhaps that’s why hearing other people’s stories is so encouraging. It reminds us that there isn’t one uniform way of hearing God. One person may sense a quiet inner nudge to step into a church for the first time. Another might glimpse something of God in the beauty of Bach played beneath a cross.
Different paths. Same God.
So maybe the invitation is simple: ask someone about their story. Not to compare it with your own, but to marvel at the creativity of a God who knows each of us so well that he calls us in ways that are, quite wonderfully, just for us.
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