Today I’m at a conference of church people. My assignment is to help a group of people understand listening prayer better. So I am going to tell stories. I’m telling them four stories. And I will tell the stories without giving them the points.

And that is the point.

Stories take listening. Stories take stopping and waiting for the narrative to unfold. Stories make us pay attention in real time, listening to details unfold in a linear way.

Or maybe not so linear. Maybe jumping around. Maybe starting in the middle and then jumping ahead and then going back to the beginning.

Sometimes when we talk with God, we want simple answers, clear points, outlines and two applications that always work. Instead, he tells us stories. Like the one about the guy who was living well and everything fell apart and then was put back together and God never gave him a good answer why. (Job).

Or the one about the God who became human and died and came back to life. In fact, that one was told four times, slightly differently each time.

We want simple clear and unambiguous bullet points. And God tells us a life.

Maybe it’s because he wants us to listen.