My mentor, John Ortberg, has a saying: “Everybody has a story; no one gets the story they want.”

You get to know people’s stories when you do what I do. Sometimes, before I preach, I look out at the congregation. Some I have known for years. Some I do not know. But every one of them has a story.

I see a couple whose only child made choices that break their hearts. Another couple was separated but are now trying to make it work. A man still grieves his wife, who passed away five years ago. A lady on a walker wonders how much longer she can live independently. A couple is holding their new baby, the one they prayed for, who was born after five years of infertility treatments. A young widow is still bewildered, never dreaming she would be facing this stage of life alone. A couple is dating, and she wants him to ask the question soon. I can get so lost in the stories I almost lose my place in my sermon. Everyone has a story; no one gets the story they want.

I remember sitting in an IHOP near the Dallas/Fort Worth airport with my friend Robert, waiting on a flight. A very beautiful woman, holding a little girl, walked in, followed by an older woman. They sat in the booth next to us. As an old sage said, “It isn’t eavesdropping if you can’t help but overhear the conversation.”

The older woman asked how the shoot went. As they shared back and forth, it turned out the younger woman was a model. She had been in Venezuela for the Sports Illustrated annual bathing suit issue photo shot. She detailed how uncomfortable it was, wearing next to nothing, standing in cold water, missing her little girl, having to force smiles and “come hither” looks. She said except for the money, she wished she had just stayed home.

I could not help but think of the thousands of men who would see her pictures and fantasize those looks were for them. She had a story; from her own lips, it was not the one she really wanted.

 Jesus, over and over, met people who had a story. None of them had the story they wanted. He encountered a leper. No one wanted his story. In those days, leprosy meant death by pieces, rotting flesh, and social isolation. I am sure that when this man was growing up, he had never dreamed of being a leper. Jesus told him to stretch out his hand, and the leprosy was gone. Jesus changed his story.

 Jarius, a synagogue leader, had a story no parent wanted. His little girl had taken ill and died. No parent ever holds their baby and says, “I hope you die before your time.”  To lose a child is more than heartbreaking; it is a ripping of your soul into pieces. In desperation, he goes to Jesus. Jesus says he will come to Jarius’ house. But on the way, there is a woman who has a story she doesn’t want. She has a disease, a continual menstrual flow. Her dreams of marriage, closeness, and having children were washed away. She, like the leper, must live in isolation. But in her desperation, she moved through a crowd, touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, and then was healed. Jesus calls her out and blesses her, telling her her faith has healed her. Her story was changed.

But Jarius was waiting for Jesus to change his daughter’s story. Jesus goes to his house, gets rid of the mourners, and brings that girl back to life. He changed her story.

Everybody has a story. No one gets the story that they want. There was a woman who met Jesus at a well. She had been rejected by five husbands. Unless you are a celebrity, this is not a story you want. Imagine the pain of her first divorce. Her second, then her third and fourth. The fifth divorce probably seemed unreal. Now, she lived with a man, and the whole town shunned her. Do you think this is the story she wanted?

Like most of us, when she met Jesus, she did not tell her whole story. But Jesus knew her story like he knows ours. Something remarkable happened at that well. That woman, who had just a small seed of faith, saw her faith bloom. She believed. She told everyone in town she met a man who told her everything she had ever done and did not reject her. The whole town came out to see this man. At the end of the story, the entire town is now interacting with this previously broken woman, appreciating her for introducing them to Jesus. Jesus changed her story.

Everybody has a story. No one gets the story they want. But Jesus can change your story. Will you let him?