Stories wind around each other and create new ways of seeing the world. Stories converge and diverge – at points almost overlapping, at others so far apart that one wonders if they can be understood. And journeys are like that too. Don’t be fooled by the look. At first they seem so linear - going from A to B in the least possible time and covering the least possible distance. But nothing could be further from the truth. Journeys, like stories, often prove tortuous. Often they cross over paths others have trod. Sometimes they tread uncharted territory. And some times, if we are lucky, others are travelling the same road as you, and even the same direction, providing companionship and support. But just when we think we have reached the end, we realise we have only just begun.

Just a few esoteric musings, I know, from someone who has just moved from local church ministry to healthcare chaplaincy. And yet somehow stories and journeys capture me. My story and journey: an unchurched boy finding faith after the death of his mother; becoming a Registered Mental Nurse; working in a community drug team; being called to ministry; ministering in two local Baptist Churches; completing a PhD; and finally coming full circle back to the NHS to become Chaplain at Worcester Royal Hospital. But there is more to the story than just my career. The story of how I met my wife; of how the children came along; of the death of my mother, and then my father; of event upon event; chapter upon chapter, that makes me, me.

And so I try to hear the stories of others too. The story of the middle aged woman I met in Accident and Emergency who wanted to see the chaplain after an attempted overdose. Of the couple who had lost their baby 20 weeks into pregnancy. Of the man whose wife of 40 years has been in hospital for 3 years with Alzheimer’s disease. And as I struggle to hear one part of their story, with its pain and anguish, I wonder what it is I have to offer. I wonder about the other parts of their stories that I have not heard. I wonder what paths their journey has led them on, and where it might continue to lead. And grasping for anything I can find, I hear the words of a Spurgeon’s tutor coming back to me: “God has not given us a book of rules; he has given us a book of stories.”

Perhaps he is right. At any rate, I have no other tools in my box except the stories of faith – stories which have changed the world; and which still offer hope to our own stories and journeys.

David Southall is the newly appointed Healthcare Chaplain in the Department of Spiritual and Pastoral Care at Worcester Royal Hospital. He has previously been minister at Saltley Baptist Church, Birmingham, and South Croydon Baptist Church. He is married to Alison, has three children, 2 dogs, a cat, and 2 guinea pigs – and stories galore!