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MARCH 2, 2011
‘THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE IS A STORY’
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south. (Psalm 107:1-3, NIV 2010)
I met a stranger on the first tee and shook hands with a friend on the eighteenth green.
Occasionally it happens. You arrive at the golf course by yourself, ready to give full concentration to your game. As a
single player, you are paired by the woman in the pro shop with two other people, complete strangers, with whom you will spend the next four and a half hours. However, this time it is different. Instead
of politely ignoring the people you are grouped with in order to improve your game, you walk with one of the other golfers down the first fairway and a fascinating adventure begins. A few hours later,
the two of you have shared your stories. You have grown closer together. Golf is the only sport I know where something like this is possible.
My wife Cathy works with a national non-profit organization that teaches finances and entrepreneurship to students,
kindergarten through high school. One interesting aspect of her work is to take high school students on “job shadows.” Recently, she took more than 30 students to spend a day with AT&T,
so they could learn about the various job possibilities with that company. This was a nationwide event for AT&T, and they did an excellent job organizing the job shadow day. The day concluded with
students across the nation watching a video in which a top-notch young man from the company told how he overcame the poverty of his youth and rose through the ranks to the position he now held with
AT&T. His presentation focused on his dreams and the people in his life who helped him realize those dreams. He concluded the video with this statement: “The shortest distance between two
people is a story.”
Perhaps that is one reason the psalmist called people of faith to “tell their story.” In this world where
folks are so badly divided, it is our stories that bring us together. Of course the telling of one’s story also involves listening to the stories of others. Storytelling is not preaching.
It was through storytelling that Peter helped bridge the gap between Jews and Gentiles in the early years of the
church. Some of Peter’s friends were concerned that he was eating (having fellowship) with folks who were not like him—circumcised and Jewish. They could not understand how it was possible to
be a person of faith and eat with the outsiders. When Peter finished his story, his friends “praised God” for the fact that there were no more outsiders. God’s love is available to all.
Perhaps it is stories that are the best safeguard against our human tendency to build walls that divide. For some
reason we seem to need an enemy, someone or a group we can be against. Yet, once we sit down with the one we have put in some box and listen to each other’s story, we realize we are more alike than
we are different. Our stories have bridged the gap. We learn that from the east, west, north and south, God has gathered a people—the redeemed who give thanks for God’s goodness and
God’s love.
This week, listen to a story and go tell your own. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
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Brad Davis
March 2, 2011
Copyright 2011 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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