A GOOD STORY

Writer and Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers on how to change someone’s mind:
“The best arguments in the world won’t change a single person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.”

This appears to be the strategy of Jesus. For example in Matthew 13 he tells the story of sowing the seed and the four soil types receiving it and stops the story. His disciples asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”
He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets (mysteries) of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables,
For they look, but they don’t really see.
They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.”
(Verses 10-13)

This may be an incentive for us to use and tell good stories that open up the way into the Kingdom.

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.” Jesus