The Story Teller (Dave Hawley)

Tonight is the first of twenty-three consecutive nights of guest devotionals penned by others while I am on my mission to Vietnam. All are excellent and I know you will be blessed! Even though I don't leave until tomorrow, I thought it would be good to kick it off tonight with some words of wisdom from my brother, Dave, an award winning teacher and probably the most successful high school tennis coach in the country! Keep me in your prayers- I'll be back on July 29. Please send comments either on the page or by the e-mail address attached and I will make sure they get to the guest bloggers!

Dave is the big one and I'm the little one!

I always enjoy the invitation to 'guest blog' for Steve while he is away, but when the actual task begins, I'm always a little at a loss for topic material.It's not that I can't think of things to say...the problem tends to be relevance and frankly, my predilection toward randomness. It is hard for me to get through one conversation without sidetracking into another vein of thought, which invariably ends up with "now what was I talking about?" But at the heart of all that is one simple truth...I love stories...always have, always will. I like to joke with our math department that when I was a kid, during story problem time, I could have cared less about the numerical answer...I wanted to know if the 5 apples that were divided between 7 people were tasty, or red or green, or...well, maybe you see my problem.

I would have to say, in an unguarded moment, that 50% of my teaching is story related...it's PROBABLY a good thing I teach American History! But within every story ought to be some relevance, in order for true learning connections to be made. Sometimes I fail at that, because, really, I sometimes tell stories with no real message...I just happen to like them, even if they carry no redeeming value!

Jesus was quite the story teller....in fact, I think that when John says"many other things were done....", that probably included a number of stories, or parables, that Jesus told to get a point across. The difference in HIS stories and mine are probably too numerous to mention, but the biggest had to be...His made a point that changed peoples' lives, or gave them an insight into what a Godly life should look like. And while I would like to think that my classroom yarns DO make some kind of difference, I'm not kidding myself. Jesus was THE master teller of truths through a manner that made people listen...and think...and act. His stories have proven timeless and still make deep impacts on our lives....if we have 'ears to hear'.

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

www.hawleybooks.com

E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com