Our Daily Bread

In a cemetery in Hanover, Germany, stands an unusual gravestone. A woman who didn’t believe in the resurrection directed in her will that her burial place be made so secure that just in case there was a resurrection it couldn’t touch her. Huge slabs of granite were fastened together with heavy steel clamps and placed over her grave. Engraved on the marker were these words: “This burial place must never be opened.”

Henry David Thoreau is often noted for his statement that most men “live lives of quiet desperation.” In an attempt to avoid that kind of existence, he lived alone from 1845 to 1847 in the woods of Walden Pond, Massachusetts. In 1854, he published his experiences in the book Walden. He wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

In central India in the mid-20th century, tensions were running high between non-Christians and Christians. A young man was told to climb to the top of a 3-story building and tear down the cross from its roof. He was not successful, though. In fact, he fell off the roof to the street below and was severely injured. When he was taken to the hospital, he was placed on a cot next to a patient who was a Christian.

In Jesus’ day, wheat was separated from the chaff by a process called winnowing. A person would shake the winnow back and forth, while allowing the wind to blow away the chaff. Jesus used this analogy to prepare Peter for the trauma he would face when he’d see his Master being led away to the cross. He said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31).

Ted Turner, successful broadcasting entrepreneur, asked a provocative question of his good friend Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation: “You’re a big fund-raiser. What’s the largest gift ever?” Gregorian told him that it was the $500 million donation Walter Annenberg had made to education. Turner replied: “How about a billion? I’m going to give a billion tonight.” And he did, promising $100 million annually to fund United Nations programs for the next 10 years.

National Doctors’ Day in the United States is March 30. Last year I missed it, and I suspect that you probably missed it too, since it’s not widely publicized.

Pop artist Andy Warhol once said that in the television age everyone would have 15 minutes of fame. Yes, fame may come to us, but we should not seek it.

On that first Palm Sunday, one might have expected Jesus the King to enter Jerusalem on a mighty steed. But He chose instead a lowly donkey. Before He could come as a King to reign, He had to come as a Savior to die. Throughout His life on earth, Jesus was a man of striking contrasts—reflecting both His genuine humanity and His full deity.

The younger members of the congregation wondered why Gaylord, who was 78, agreed to serve another 3-year term as elder. Some advised him to take it easy; he had already contributed more than his share of energy to the church.

He said he had trusted Jesus as his Savior, but he was involved in an illicit affair. His buddies were men who bragged about getting away with dishonesty and immorality. I wanted to encourage him to live for Christ, so I met with him weekly.