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FEBRUARY 2018
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EVERY STRANGER HAS A STORY
A CONVERSATION WITH BEN AND KELLY SMITH
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H
uman beings have been telling
stories for thousands of years.
Storytelling is an innate trait
which humans have actually used to
process life. Jonathan Haidt, a social
psychologist said, “The human mind is
a story processor, not a logic processor.”
Our minds were clearly created to tell
stories and to hear stories. We need
stories. Richard Kearney, a professor
of philosophy says, “Telling stories
is as basic to human beings as eating.
More so, in fact, for while food makes
us live, stories are what make our
lives worth living.” Something about
stories fascinates us. This becomes
evident when a new movie comes out
in theaters. Right? We love the idea of
the build-up, the climax, and the happy
ending. Stories weave together into a
giant tapestry. Our stories intertwine.
I had the privilege of interviewing
Ben and Kelly Smith from Bread &
Wine recently and got some insight
into their hearts for stories coming
together, community happening and
SO WILL I
S
Something has been stirring in
my heart for a long time now,
and I believe that today, I re-
alized this thing is more relevant than
I thought. While getting gas at my
neighborhood QuikTrip this morning, I
how the name of their music group
says it all. There is one aspect of stories
coming together that is hard to engage
in, and that is vulnerability. Personally,
vulnerability is a passion of mine. I love
when people find connections from
telling their stories. I love when people
find healing by exposing the hard stuff.
Kelly also has an extraordinarily high
value for vulnerability. She says that
the truest moments of change happen
when we are honest about our feelings
and experiences, with ourselves and
others. She says, “It takes a tremendous
amount of courage to be vulnerable,
mostly because the main messages
our culture celebrates are happiness,
success, and temporary fulfillment.”
She goes on to say that we haven’t
been taught how to hold vulnerable
moments well. She also says, “When
we’re vulnerable, we are offering a
pure/raw piece of ourselves for another
person to hold for a moment.” Great
trust and faith are required to let
someone hold that piece of ourselves.
She says that vulnerability is an act of faith that invites someone into the parts
of you you’d rather keep hidden. Deep
relationships can happen when two
people agree to be vulnerable!
heard a van pull up beside me. He got
out, and I couldn’t help but listen to the
podcast he was enjoying. Which was
being played obnoxiously loud. I felt
something inside of me urging me to
ask him about what he was listening to.
I was very hesitant, but I couldn’t resist
the urge any longer. I blurted out, “Ex-
cuse me. What are you listening to?”
He proceeded to tell me that he was
listening to a podcast by a man named
Jordan Peterson. Peterson is a clinical
psychologist who studies spirituality.
He started to explain to me that he had
been going through a period of study-
ing different religions. He grew up as
Catholic, and when he began noticing
hypocrisy in the church, he walked away from Catholicism. We talked
about spirituality for about 10 minutes.
The critical thing to note about this
conversation is not what was said but
why did he feel like he needed to talk
to me for that long about what he had
been learning about spirituality? Why
did he feel the need to get his inner-
most thoughts off his chest? Why did
he share with a complete stranger? Hu-
man beings were obviously made for
relationship. According to the self-de-
termination theory, relatedness is one
of the three primary psychological
needs of humans. This man unloaded
everything he was feeling because I
But something magical happens
when people are vulnerable with
their stories. Relationship happens.
Ben and Kelly Smith started Bread
& Wine when the inspiration came to
them while they were worship pastors
at a local church in Atlanta. They felt
a deep-rooted desire to take worship
outside of the four walls. The Smiths
understand that going to church can
sometimes be very hard for many
different reasons. Sometimes people
have been wounded by people in the
church. Sometimes people feel guilty
for walking away from church for
some amount of time. Some don’t
necessarily agree with something
they heard in church. They wanted to
provide a place where people wouldn’t
Continued on page 3...
Continued on page 3...
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Table of Contents
Arts and Entertainment.....................6
Awake Coffee Community................2
Business and Finance......................4
Casa Fights with You........................10
Deon’s Do’s & Don’ts........................5
Devotional..........................................2
Education & Development ...............11
Government.......................................8
Health and Wellness..........................9
Pat Cavanaugh Chief Advisor..........3
Pet of the Month................................2
Self-Love Tips....................................9
Tap and Cork .....................................6
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