Not Ours
There’s a fictional story that makes the rounds every once in a while: An elderly woman is looking for her car in a parking lot. When she finally locates it, she is shocked to discover three men sitting inside. She reaches into her purse and pulls out a gun, causing the frightened men to flee. The woman feels quite proud of herself as she gets in the car. Attempting to put her key in the ignition, she finds it doesn’t fit. Checking her license plate, she realizes the car isn’t hers. She had unjustly driven away the men from a car that was rightly theirs!
What You Have
“You can’t get blood from a rock.” That saying, used sometimes in my part of the world, means that we can’t get from another person or situation what simply isn’t there. For example, I might say, “I can’t get blood from a rock” when I’m trying to collect a debt from someone who doesn’t have the money to repay me. Trying to acquire cash from someone who isn’t capable of providing it is impossible.
Run with It!
Siobhan Dowd, a British author of young adult novels, died of cancer at age 47. After her death another author, Patrick Ness, was commissioned to finish one of her unpublished stories. A Monster Calls was published in 2011. It was a stunning success, winning both the Kate Greenaway and the Carnegie Medals, prestigious book awards in the UK. In the introduction, Ness says, “I felt—and feel—as if I’ve been handed a baton, like a particularly fine writer has given me her story and said, ‘Go. Run with it.’ ”
Looking for Work?
National Football League player Joe Anderson was released from his first team due to injuries. But possessing a powerful physique, Anderson knew he was uniquely qualified for an athletic career. To try and join a new team, he stood outside an NFL sports stadium holding a hand-made sign. The sign read: “ . . . starving for SUCCESS!!!” and had hashtags: #whateverittakes and #ibelieve. During his job quest, which ended successfully, he commented: “I’m outside [the stadium] . . . every morning, because I know what type of gift God has blessed me with!”
Everything Matters
So many of us struggle to feel that our work—the ways we spend the majority of our time and the way we pay our bills—has lasting spiritual value. This is remarkable, given how often Scripture insists that everything we do matters to God.
Treasure that Lasts
A man who owned a car dealership became better “known for the cars he kept than the ones he sold.” During his 5 decades running the dealership, he held on to select cars that customers traded in, and quite a few new models too, amassing a collection of more than 500 automobiles that he kept parked on a farm. Right before the man died in 2014, his collection sold by auction. The sale drew 25,000 people, was filmed for TV’s History channel, and raised $2.8 million (US). It’s obvious that the owner was really into collecting cars. Yet, when he died, he wasn’t able to take any of them with him.
Limits
My wife and I used to live in a small flat on the sixth floor of an apartment block. We loved its balcony views and simplicity. And there was no yard work to do! But our little home had its problems, one in particular—a limited power supply.
Bodies Matter
The Week magazine features a “What’s Next?” column based on current events. In a recent issue they asked readers to submit answers to a question based on this comment from chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain: “Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.” The question was: “What would be a good name for a theme park ride based on the typical American’s body?”
Real Stewardship
Rick Vuyst hosts a local call-in radio gardening show in my hometown. Vuyst, who identifies himself an “entre-manure,” weekly “soils” the airwaves with gardening advice. But don’t let his “cracked pot” puns fool you. If you’re having problems with your lawn or plants, this master gardener can help, often telling listeners who have called in, “Thank you very ‘mulch.’ ”
Do Something!
When I was a kid, my dad encouraged me to be courageous and not play it safe. He could see how tempted I was to overthink a situation or to hedge my bets. “Do something!” he would say. Then in jest, he would add: “Even if it’s wrong, do something!”
Stewards Unaware
Recently I met the captain of one of the boats featured on Wicked Tuna, National Geographic Channel’s reality television show. The show follows the lives of bluefin tuna fishermen living in the US. Bluefin tuna are some of the largest marine creatures. They can grow to 10 feet long and weigh more than 1,000 pounds. Sadly, illegal practices and over-fishing have seriously threatened their population.
bring on the bees
Bees can identify certain scents from nearly 3 miles away. Because of their keen sense of smell, ability to fly, and minimal bodyweight, they make ideal bomb-sniffers. Croatian scientist Nikola Kezic has trained bees to detect TNT—an explosive used in his country’s many active landmines. He trains the bees by mixing tiny amounts of TNT with sugar. When the bees are released over a minefield, they’ll fly to areas where they smell the explosive—hoping to find some sweet dessert!
x prize
The X Prize Foundation attempts to solve the world’s problems by offering large cash prizes to whatever team can fix them first. Winning teams have built a spacecraft that can fly beyond the earth’s atmosphere twice in 2 weeks and cars that achieve 100 miles per gallon. Other teams are trying to land a robot on the moon, build a machine that can quickly sequence each person’s genome, and create a portable device that can diagnose a patient’s condition. These goals will most likely be met, for people will work hard for $10 million.
guard these well
Japanese-born baseball player Ichiro Suzuki, having led professional leagues in Japan and the US in hitting, is arguably one of the best hitters to ever play the game. One could say he has a special bat—literally. The Mizuno sports equipment company custom-makes bats for Ichiro by hand. They use Tamo wood grown on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, and Ichiro cares for them like Stradivarius violins. He even uses a custom-made suitcase that’s shockproof and moisture-free to protect them.
