Stories have undeniable power. Psychology Today has an entire section of its website dedicated to "The Power of Stories," which articulates a truth steadily saturating culture: "Telling stories is the best way to teach, persuade, and even understand ourselves." Click over to Apple's iPad page and you'll read: "What will your verse be? See how people are using iPad in their unique ways to add to the world's story."

Stories can challenge, inspire, or convict. The challenge faced by leaders, pastors, speakers, and teachers face is finding the right story to tell.

So what makes a good story?

Leo Tolstoy helps narrow the search with his observation: "All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town." Good stories are strongly relatable, realistic, and relevant. They are also concise and clever, if they are going to be memorable.

Yikes, finding good stories is far from easy! No wonder the joy when a new story finds you.

The story that found me, and now ...