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In Other Words...

A Research Service Of Facts & Humor For Christian Leaders

August  2025

CONSCIENCE: In the Pulitzer classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus Finch advised his 6-year-old daughter Scout about the importance of our conscience.  He said, “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee, 1960, p.21
 
EFFORT: Tim Corbin became the head baseball coach for Vanderbilt University in 2003.  Under his leadership the Commodores have won two national championships.  He’s built a culture of success by instilling a strong work ethic that includes a simple motto: “You rent your position.”  It’s a daily reminder that excellence is required to stay in the lineup.  There’s no entitlement so nobody can rest on past accomplishments.  Thankfully, our salvation doesn’t operate under the same mantra, but it’s still a great principle to utilize as we pursue maturity in Christ. Google AI
 
FAITH: In a chapter about Nicodemus, Max Lucado invites readers to consider whether faith is like a rowboat or a sailboat.  In a rowboat we must provide the energy for progress.  A sailboat offers unlimited power from the wind. Nicodemus specialized in gripping the oars while Jesus offered a taunt sail.  Rowboat faith fixates on what we can do and sailboat faith focuses on what God has already done.  One exhausts…one exudes power. Help Is Here, Max Lucado, 2022, p.29
 
FEAR: June 20, 2025, marked the 50th anniversary of that historic movie Jaws.  It forever changed the way we think about time at the beach.  Buried in all the press about this anniversary was a stat provided by Dr. Taylor Chapple, co-director of the Big Fish Lab at Oregon State University.  He said, “More people die from taking selfies than from sharks.”  Maybe we should start playing John Williams’ “dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun” before snapping selfies. USA Today, 6/20/25, p.A3
 
GOD: In 1870, George Mueller’s wife died.  They had been married forty years and he loved her dearly.  Together they built orphanages for destitute children in England and had demonstrated great faith in God through prayerful dependence upon Him.  The 65-year-old Mueller read Psalm 119:68 at her funeral to declare that, “God is good and He does good.”  He stated, “If he pleases to take my dearest wife, it will be good, like Himself.  What I have to do, as His child, is to be satisfied with what my Father does, that I may glorify Him.”  As Nahum 1:7 declares, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble.” Lessons From A Hospital Bed, John Piper, 2016, p.21
 
HEAVEN: Creation’s beauty is like a movie trailer for the coming majesty of heaven.  That’s why Augustine (354-430) wrote, “If these are the beauties afforded to sinful men, what does God have in store for those who love him?” The Overcomers, Matt Chandler, 2024, p.215
 
IRONY: The obituary for Jimmy Swaggart was printed in the New York Times after the televangelist died on July 1, 2025.  The paper noted that Swaggart’s obituary was written by long-time reporter & editor David Stout—28 years with the Times—who died in 2020. NYTimes.com
 
JUDGMENT: Sam Haskell III spent three decades as a top-tier Hollywood talent agent with clients like Dolly Parton, George Clooney, Whoopi Goldberg and Kathie Lee Gifford.  His son, Sam Jr., lived a very comfortable life in the lap of luxury until he was arrested for the brutal murders of his wife and her parents.  On July 12, 2025, just two days before he was to appear in court for these crimes, Haskell took his life in a Los Angeles jail.  On July 14th, when Haskell was scheduled for a preliminary hearing, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman stated, “Instead of standing before a judge and answering for the crimes he’s been charged with, the defendant managed to escape justice.  This is one last cruel act by someone who did the most horrific things for reasons we will never entirely know.”  Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that even though it appears justice has been averted, true judgment is inescapable. USA Today, 7/16/25, p.A5
 
KINDNESS: Mark Twain (1835-1910) expanded on the writings of a contemporary, Christian Nestell Bovee (1820-1904), to give us some great commentary on kindness: “Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” GoodReads.com; Google AI
 
MONEY: Imagine having a part-time job where all you do is worry about money.  It turns out this is a side-hustle for most Americans.  The financial services company of Empower found that in 2025, those in the U.S. average nearly four hours a day thinking about finances.  Time is spent checking accounts, worrying about bills, debt & investments, and losing sleep over insufficient amounts of money, both real & perceived.  It’s a job without a paycheck. USA Today, 8/8/25, p.A5
 
PRAYER: An Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff on June 12, 2025.  This great tragedy claimed the lives of all but one of the 242 people onboard and 19 people on the ground.  The investigation found that the two main fuel switches were manually turned off in the cockpit shortly after the plane became airborne.  The starved engines lost their thrust and the plane glided to destruction.  The flight recorder revealed the pilots’ conversation about this error and their realization that reignition of the engines couldn’t occur fast enough to save them.  Prayer is similar to those fuel switches—we can’t survive without it.  Prayer will sustain us…and prayerlessness will destroy us. Wall Street Journal, 7/17/25, p.A1
 
SIN: It only took five seconds to damage careers, reputations and families.  On July 16, 2025, the Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts included a kiss cam.  Two lead employees of Astronomer, CEO Andy Byron and head of HR, Kristin Cabot, were embracing each other when the camera found them and put them up on the Jumbotron.  They immediately broke away from each other and hid their faces but the brief moment had been captured on video and it went viral—over 120 million views and counting.  They are both married to someone else and Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin made it even more awkward by spontaneously stating, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”  He was right on the first part and both lost their jobs with far more damage being worked out at home.  It’s easy to believe our sin is safe in the dark, but the Bible reminds us that sooner or later it will go viral. USA Today, 7/20/25, p.N4
 
WORRY: Timothy Keller (1950-2023) made this Twitter (now X) post: “Worry is not believing God will get it right, and bitterness is believing God got it wrong.” @TimKellerNYC, 9/13/21
 

EVERYDAY HUMOR

 
CRITICISM: The new pastor was greeted by a couple with these welcoming words: “We want you to know you will never be your own worst critic, not while we’re here!” JoeMcKeever.com
 
FEAR: Neil Simon (1927-2018), the comedic American screenwriter & author, famously said, “I’m not afraid of flying.  I’m afraid of crashing.” Reader’s Digest, May 2011, p.157
 
PARENTING: Dennis the Menace woke his dad in the middle of the night, handed him the phone and said, “It’s Mr. Wilson.”  In exasperation Mr. Mitchell asked, “Why is he calling me at this hour?”  Dennis then clarified, “He didn’t call you, I called him, but he wants to talk to you.”  Parenting involves answering some unsolicited calls. Houston Chronicle, 6/11/23, p.U4

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