PLAYING GOD This is part of the primordial temptation to be as gods. In the film "Hoosiers," actor Gene Hackman, playing the role of a new coach in a small Indiana town, responds to the…
Sermon Illustrations
A CONTRASTING VIEW Phil Donahue tells of a time when he was starting out as a young television reporter and was sent to cover a mine disaster... It was late at night. Snow was on…
SILENT FOOL "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." Author unknown
THE WRONG HORSE WON Two Kentucky farmers who owned racing stables had developed a keen rivalry. One spring, each of them entered a horse in a local steeplechase. Thinking that a professional rider might help…
THE BROKEN BOAT BOLT I recall one time when we still lived at Carlsbad, I had a small boat, a run-about with a 40 horsepower motor, which was quickly wearing out. It was our first…
NOTHING BUT PASTE Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" tells the sad story of a young woman named Mathilde who dreamed, as many do, of making it in high society. However, she was the wife of…
DON'T TELL In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Bantam, 1975), Annie Dillard repeats an unforgettable story about an eskimo hunter who asked the village priest, "If I did not know about God and sin, would I…
CARPET CLEANOUT Some people you just have to feel sorry for. Like Mrs. Dora Wilson, an English housewife. On February 18, 1981, Mrs. Wilson looked out her window in Harlow, Essex, and saw a group…
OUR GLORY OR GOD'S GLORY If you crawl under a choir stall of many Gothic Cathedrals, you will find carved there four letters: "AMDG." You may find the same four letters etched onto the cathedral's…
FETRIDGE'S LAW: Important things that are supposed to happen do not happen, especially when people are looking. This little known law was named by and for Claude Fetridge, an engineer working for NBC Radio, who…
LIGHT TO LIGHT Back when electricity was first being introduced to a little Scottish village, most everybody in a particular church switched from the propane lanterns to electricity just as soon as it could be…
Perspective/Attitude/Vision WEEDS OR FLOWERS The king called two men into his presence. To the first he said, "I want you to take six months; travel the length and breadth of the kingdom and bring back…
NO TRIFLE FOR PERFECTION When a friend called on Michaelangelo a second time, he found him still working at the same statue. "You have been idle since I saw you last," he exclaimed. "No, indeed,"…
OUR WORST ENEMY IS OURSELVES! Of course some worldwide disaster could happen, coming to us anywhere from star crash to infective protein, but the chances are heavily against it - less than one chance in…
WORLD CHANGE Reformers who treat the campaign against environmental and human degradation solely in terms of improved technological facilities, like the reduction of gasoline exhaust in motor cars, see only a small part of the…
THE IDIOT'S QUESTION The biggest idiot can sometimes ask the questions the smartest man can't answer.
TECHNOLOGY MADE RIGHT The following is from Bucky Fuller who is called the "godfather" of the Whole Earth Catalog... Humanity is acquiring the right technology for all the wrong reasons - and only as driven…
SHORT SHOTS I 'll listen to your unreasonable demands...if you'll consider my unacceptable offer. Inform all the troops that communications have completely broken down. Accept me for what I am... completely unacceptable. Everybody is entitled…
A PURPOSE FOR PROGRESS One of the discouraging discoveries of our disillusioning century is that science is neutral: it will kill us as readily as it will heal, and will destroy for us more readily…
LOSING THE STRUGGLE When difficult problems grow worse, it's tempting to give up on God. When the ultimate Source of power refuses to take up our just cause, then whatever is required to find relief…
