Pull up a rocking chair. Let me tell you a story.

“What’s your story?”

That’s a good question.

Pull up a rocking chair and sit a spell.

How has your journey unfolded? Where were you yesterday? Where are you today? Where do you hope to be tomorrow?

Yesterday, I was a little boy growing up on a farm in rural Mississippi. I started school in a two-room country schoolhouse where I was blessed with teachers who believed in me. Watching them, I decided that one day I wanted to be a teacher too.

Then life changed.

When I was fourteen, my father died unexpectedly. He was both a farmer and the pastor of a small rural church that couldn’t afford a full-time minister. His death left an empty pulpit and a grieving congregation.

A short time later, I had a dream unlike any I had ever experienced. I saw that little church, and I saw myself standing behind its pulpit, leading the worship service. I didn’t know what to make of it.

Two months later, at fifteen years old, I became the pastor of that little church.

In a single season, the direction of my life changed. What had begun as a dream of becoming a teacher became a calling to ministry.

Looking back now, I realize that our stories are rarely straight lines. They twist through joy and sorrow, dreams and disappointments, unexpected turns and surprising grace. We make plans, but life often rewrites them.

That’s my story—or at least where it begins.

What’s yours?