Our greatest joy and our greatest pain comes from the same place, relationships.

And so I knew if I was going to live life as the Creator intended, Then I had to get this right in my life.

Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. Our stories this week demonstrate the power of

relationship and what can happen when we allow God to change our lives through

unexpected friendships. We'll hear from pastor Dr. Darius Daniels and author Ron Hall.

Dr Darius Daniels has always wanted to live a life of purpose. As a young college student, he felt sure he was supposed to go to law school

until a friend and mentor helped him see how God could use him to reach others far

outside the courtroom. Over the years Dr. Daniels began to realize that

relationships have the power to change our lives and if we're seeking to live a life of purpose,

that journey starts with serving people

and lifting each other up.

I grew up in a small town in Mississippi called Kill Michael Mississippi.

The last census I think pegged the town at about 630 people.

No stop lights, one full-time police officer,

one doctor, but it was an amazing upbringing,

and I would say the size of the town made the town highly

relational. It was literally, I mean you knew the majority of people in the town, there's this proverb that says,

it takes a village to raise a child, and my life is really the fruit

of some of the relationships that I formed early on in my life in that small town and the impact that those

relationships had in my formation. I went to college with all intents and

purposes of going to law school. We had to take classes on political theory. A lot of

the political theorists that we were studying, some of them were actually theologians.

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