Many years ago, Jim Wallis wrote about a time when the South African government canceled a political rally against apartheid. Desmond Tutu led a worship service in St. George’s Cathedral, and soldiers and riot police came in carrying guns and bayonets, ready to close it down. Bishop Tutu began to speak of the evils of […]
Billy Graham once told of his son Franklin’s experience in the Middle East. Franklin was visiting a camp which held nationals from Kuwait. These people had traveled for days across the hot burning desert in buses. He noticed a woman who looked very distressed. She had small children around her. As Franklin began talking with […]
Some years ago in the devotional Bits and Pieces, William Schultz wrote about a time when his daughter Laurie was about three. One night she called to him, “Daddy, can you help me get on my pajamas?” He was downstairs and she was upstairs. “Laurie, you know how to dress yourself,” he reminded her. “Yes,” […]
Sometime back, I got an email that was clearly spam – a junk advertisement for a new mortgage. I saved it as a sermon illustration because it so blatantly plays on human greed and our capacity to covet what we don’t have. Here’s how it reads: “Your neighbor moved to a much better house recently? […]
The word love, at least in the English language, has become almost trite, and really over used. This is at least in part because we use it in so many different ways. For example, we might say, “I love my spouse…” or, “I love my children.” But then we might also say, “I love me […]
Phillip Barry in the Handbook of Magazine Article Writing, tells the following story. “Alex Haley, the author of Roots has a picture in his office, showing a turtle sitting atop a fence. The picture is there to remind him of a lesson he learned long ago: ‘If you see a turtle on a fence post, […]
There’s an old story about a farm couple who were driving along in their pickup truck. The woman leans over and says to her husband, “How come we never sit all snuggled up in the truck like we used to?” The man looks over at her and replies, “Well honey, I sure ain’t the one […]
My daughter Marley and I used to regularly walk on the beach in the evenings. One night on the walk she said, “Tell me what’s on your mind, and then I’ll tell you what’s on mine.” I was actually in a bad mood and feeling low, so I responded, “Okay. I’m upset that Noelle destroyed […]
You might remember comedian Yakov Smirnoff. In one of his routines, he spoke about his initial arrival and adjustment when he first came to the United States from Russia. He was stunned by the incredible variety of instant products available in American grocery stores. He said, “On my first shopping trip, I saw powdered milk. […]
There was a couple in a church where I once served who were going through a really difficult time in their marriage. About that same time, they stopped coming to worship. I ran into her at the grocery, and she began to try to explain why they hadn’t been there. She stopped herself and said, […]
