Let There Be Wit and Wisdom--Weekly
John Ortberg
The preacher's job, finally, is to look at every moment of time, every inch of space, to find there the old, old story and to keep reminding everyone who will listen that the curse shall not have the last word.
—John Ortberg There is an old story about a mother who walks in on her six-year-old son and finds him sobbing. "What's the matter?" she asks. "I've just figured out how to tie my shoes." "Well, honey, that's wonderful." Being a wise mother, she recognizes his victory in the Eriksonian struggle of autonomy versus doubt: "You're growing up, but why are you crying?" "Because," he says, "now I'll have to do it every day for the rest of my life." Preaching is like that. Sundays just keep coming. Like the Energizer power bunny. Like death and taxes and Slim Whitman Christmas albums. Some months, every other day is a Sunday. One of the most celebrated of all I Love Lucy episodes features Lucy wrapping candy as it passes on a conveyer belt. In the mistaken belief that Lucy is handling the candy with competence, her supervisor throttles the conveyor belt up to warp speed. An occasional piece of candy gets wrapped, but most of them end up getting stuffed in her mouth or various other places on her person. There just isn't time to handle them properly. Preaching is like that too. In a world where Sundays can't be postponed, where they keep coming ready or not (usually not), how is it possible to move from survival mode to creativity? God in every inch
Books of illustrations are generally the homiletical equivalent of canned sitcom laugh tracks. And television shows are okay once in a while, but if we use them too often in our sermons, people will start wondering what we do with our time. Having preschool children at home is better from ...
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