1 of 1

Key Bible Verse: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). Bonus Reading: Isaiah 53:1-9

Jewish psychiatrist Victor Frankl had spent years researching and writing a book on finding meaning in life. Arrested by the Nazis during World War II, he arrived in Auschwitz, stripped of everything—property, family, possessions—but with his manuscript hidden in the lining of his coat.

"I had to surrender my clothes and in turn inherited the worn out rags of an inmate who had been sent to the gas chamber," says Frankl. "Instead of my manuscript, I found in the pocket of the newly acquired coat a single page torn out of a Hebrew prayer book, which contained the Shema Yisrael (today's Key Bible Verses).

"I interpreted this 'coincidence' as a challenge to live my thoughts instead of merely putting them on paper."

Later, reflecting on his ordeal, Frankl wrote in his book, Man's Search for Meaning, "Nothing in the world would so effectively helps one to survive even the worst conditions as that knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life. … He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how."

—Craig Brian Larson in Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching

• Give God your difficulties and ask Him to remind you why you live.

Thought to Apply: Jesus did not come to explain away suffering or remove it. He came to fill it with His presence.

—PAUL CLAUDEL (FRENCH DIPLOMAT, AUTHOR, PLAYWRIGHT)

Credits: Adapted from—Thursday: Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching (Baker, 1993)

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information click here.

To sign up for a risk-free trial issue of Men of Integrity click here.

To order multiple copies of Men of Integrity for your men's group, click here.

 1 of 1

share this page

Prayer for the Week

				Try an Issue of Men of Integrity Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders. If you decide you want to keep Men of Integrity coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless. Give Men of Integrity as a gift Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!

FREE Newsletter Sign up for the Men of Integrity Newsletter    RSS Feed   RSS Help