Ability

The next time you're signing your name at the DMV or another U.S. Government office, you probably won't notice the black pen in your hand. It, after all, is exactly like the dozens of other black pens you've used in post offices, courthouses, and other buildings throughout your adult life. You certainly won't think there's much of a story behind the unobtrusive implement that, likely as not, is chained to the well-worn desk you've been waiting to stand at.

But like everything, those pens have a story. For over 55 years, those Skilcraft pens have been assembled by blind factory workers in Wisconsin and North Carolina. Each year they make nearly four million pens. The pens must meet rigorous government specifications: to write continuously for a mile, and within temperature swings from 40 below zero to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The standard length of the pen has helped lost Navy pilots navigate by map. Stories say that the pen can be used as a two-inch bomb fuse, or for emergency tracheotomies. It can write upside down. It costs less than 60 cents (when purchased in quantity).

The pen has a rich, fascinating history, woven together with war, peace, postage, bureaucrats, spies, work, and play. And you'd never know it to look at it.

Much like many of us. In every room, every single person has a story, a rich, fascinating history that few of us ever think to ask about. If we did, we'd be floored, astounded. We'd see each other differently, and with more respect. Just like you'll see that pen differently the next time you pick it up.

How often do we as parents imagine our children playing a professional sport? Whether it is swimming, gymnastics, college football, or basketball, there is often the hope that our child will make the cut.

‌Youth sports is a big industry in the United States. The Aspen Institute says it is a “30-40 billion dollar,” industry. The average family spends around $883 a year to cover the costs of just one primary sport. We might ask "Is the cost worth the investment?"

‌The reality is that only 3% of High School basketball players will play at college level. And this number drops significantly further along the professional level.

‌According to the NCAA, “Only 0.02 to 0.03 percent of high school players end up playing in the NBA or WNBA.” Think about that number! That means out of 10,000 high school players only 1 or 2 will ever get the chance to play a professional sport.

‌Possible Preaching Angle:

It is so easy to get focused on the wrong goals. Matthew 25:14-30 makes clear that it is not the amount of the talent, but our attitude towards our gifts that is crucial. We each have been given at least one gift and different abilities. Jesus says do not look at what others do, instead make a difference with the talent you have been given.

Picture this: you’re nestled comfortably in your airline seat cruising towards your holiday destination when a flight attendant’s voice breaks through the silence: “Ladies and gentlemen, both pilots are incapacitated. Are there any passengers who could land this plane with assistance from air traffic control?”

If you think you could manage it, you’re not alone. Surveys indicate about 30% of adult Americans think they could safely land a passenger aircraft with air traffic control’s guidance. Among male respondents, the confidence level rose to nearly 50%.

We’ve all heard stories of passengers who saved the day when the pilot became unresponsive. For instance, in 2022, Darren Harrison managed to land a twin-engine aircraft in Florida – after the pilot passed out – with the guidance of an air traffic controller. However, such incidents tend to take place in small, simple aircraft. Flying a much bigger and heavier commercial jet is a completely different game.

Takeoffs and landings are arguably the most difficult tasks pilots perform, and are always performed manually. Only on very few occasions, can a pilot use autopilot to land the aircraft for them. This is the exception, and not the rule.

Landing is complicated, and requires having precise control of the aircraft’s direction and descent rate. To land successfully, a pilot must keep an appropriate speed while simultaneously managing gear and flap configuration, adhering to air traffic regulations, communicating with air traffic control, and completing a number of paper and digital checklists.

Once the aircraft comes close to the runway, they must accurately judge its height, reduce power, and adjust the rate of descent – ensuring they land on the correct area of the runway. On the ground, they will use the brakes and reverse thrust to bring the aircraft to a complete stop before the runway ends. This all happens within just a few minutes.

Both takeoff and landing are far too quick, technical, and concentration-intensive for an untrained person to pull off. So, if you’ve never even learned the basics of flying, your chances of successfully landing a passenger aircraft with air traffic control’s help are close to zero.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Pride; Self-confidence; Self-exaltation – This illustration speaks to the overconfidence of the human nature. We have been encouraged to overestimate our abilities and underestimate our shortcomings in today’s culture; 2) Criticism; Pastor; Minister – This could also apply to a church setting in which members criticize the performance of the pastor and leadership and often have the thought “I could do their job so much better!”

According Deadspin’s sports columnist, Stephen Knox, NBA legend LeBron James may have achieved athletic feats that ordinary men can only dream of, but in one important way he’s just like many other men his age: he’s still an overprotective dad.

LeBron is the father of LeBron “Bronny” James, Jr. A point guard for the University of Southern California Trojans, Bronny has been widely considered a highly touted college basketball prospect for most of his collegiate athletic career. But it’s been unclear how much his visibility is due to hard work, talent due to genetic advantages, or simple nepotism.

This is why James caught some heat online after he responded defensively to the news that the prognosticators of the 2024 ESPN Mock NBA Draft left Bronny off their list, implying that he might need one more year of college basketball before his skill level will make him NBA-ready.

“Can y’all just let a kid be a kid and enjoy college basketball,” LeBron wrote on a recent social media post. “The work and results will ultimately do the talking no matter what he decides to do.”

Critics and skeptics piled on by rightly pointing out that LeBron helped to create the hype that he is now decrying by publicly stating a desire to play with his son in the NBA. Nevertheless, it seems as though Knox is willing to give LeBron the benefit of the doubt regarding his motivations. Knox concluded, “Even an American sports icon can get carried away with parental pride.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Our Heavenly Father loves us fully and unconditionally; no matter the pressure others put on us or we put on ourselves, God requires us only to faithfully live our calling and trust the outcome into his care.

Baseball scouts are constantly looking for new talent, but Major League Baseball is now partnering with Uplift Labs, a biomechanics company, which “says it can document a prospect’s specific movement patterns using just two iPhone cameras.”

Uplift says it uses artificial intelligence to translate the images captured by the phone cameras into metrics that can quantify elements of player movement. It believes the data it generates can detect player’s flaws, forecast their potential, and flag their potential for injury.

Baseball scouts suddenly have a lot more information in their search for the mythical “five-tool player who has speed, fielding, fielding prowess, can hit for average and power and possess arm strength. Gone are the days when teams relied on a scout’s career’s worth of anecdata to determine how the player might perform at the big leagues.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, talents and liabilities. God knows us inside and out, better than anyone else, even ourselves or artificial intelligence.

To excel in the National Basketball Association, as in any sports league, a player must be in excellent physical condition. But according to a profile by ESPN senior writer Baxter Holmes, what sets NBA champion Nikola Jokic apart from his peers is not his towering physique or his Serbian heritage, but rather, his dizzying intellect.

Ognjen Stojaković, player development coach for Jokic’s Denver Nuggets, says, “You're as fast as you can anticipate. He anticipates situations two and three steps ahead. People don't understand, before the situation happens, he can predict it."

According to tracking firm Second Spectrum, Jokic assisted on 468 layups and dunks--the most of any active NBA player. All-time NBA great LeBron James describes Jokic as mentally exceptional. James said, “He sees plays before they happen. Maybe it's not talked about, because a lot of people don't understand it, but I do. He's special.”

Branislav Vicentic coached Jokic as a teenager in Belgrade, Serbia. He said, “The first time I saw him. I just fell in love.” Despite his substandard conditioning, at first Jokic was unable to complete 10 sit-ups or pushups, Vicentic said that Jokic simply didn’t make any mistakes on the court. Having only coached him for that one year, Vicentic said he’d never seen anyone like Jokic, either before or since.

Vicentic said, “Listen, I don't want to take credit. Some [people] ask me, ‘Hey, you create Nikola Jokic?’ I don't know how to make Nikola Jokic. I was blessed to have him on my team. He's Beethoven. You give him a piano. He makes music.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Don't devalue the gifting and identity with which God has gifted you. Be yourself to the best of your ability, and don't worry about whether it matches the expectations of others.

2022 saw some truly bizarre Guinness World Records, including:

• Fastest time to find and alphabetize the letters in a can of alphabet soup (2 minutes and 8.6 seconds).
• The farthest tightrope walk in high heels (639 feet, in four-inch stilettos)
• The largest gathering of people with the same first and last name (178 Hirokazu Tanakas in Japan, beating the 2005 record of 164 Martha Stewarts).
• Fastest time to eat 10 Carolina Reaper chilies.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This is a lighthearted look at human “accomplishments.” But it does raise the question, “What new and innovative activity can you accomplish for the Lord and his Kingdom this year? How can you use your spiritual gift to unlock new avenues of service or outreach for the Lord?”

Suzanne Simard writes about ecosystems from the viewpoint of adaptation and evolution. But her comments pique the interest of those who love the diversity and interconnectedness of the Body of Christ. She writes:

We can think of an ecosystem of wolves, caribou, trees, and fungi creating biodiversity just as an orchestra of woodwind, brass, percussion, and string musicians assemble into a symphony. Or our brains, composed of neurons, axons, and neurotransmitters, produce thought and compassion. Or the way brothers and sisters join to overcome a trauma like illness or death, the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

The cohesion of biodiversity in a forest, the musicians in an orchestra, the members of a family growing through conversation and feedback, through memories and learning from the past. Through this cohesion, our systems develop into something whole and resilient.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Members of the body of Christ, with different personalities, gifts, and backgrounds are “being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22).

Scott Bozearth coaches two youth basketball teams in New Jersey. And it was a good year, both teams made a championship run this season. If you coach multiple teams, having a single team advance into a league tournament is no small accomplishment.

He and the parents of the youth on his team credit his "can do attitude" with his success. 12-year-old Abraxus Hannah had only stepped on the court for the first time this year. “Anytime I say I can't do something, Coach Scott always tells me I can," said Hannah. "I feel like he's made a really big difference in my life.” Parents agree that Coach Scott's can-do attitude has sparked a positive change in their children.

And Bozearth knows a thing or two about working through challenges. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth, hindering the muscles on the left side of his body. That includes his left hand, which does not function as well as the right. In spite of this, Bozearth grew up playing basketball. He carried that passion into his adult life, where he coaches two teams in the Herb Henry Youth Basketball League. He believes his role is to do more than simply teach technical skills. He summarized his role in a recent interview with this phrase: "I love challenges. So, what I thought is, if God gave me a hand to play, I'm going to play like that."

Possible Preaching Point:

God is sovereign. The hand you have is the hand God intended for you to have. Now play like that!

The hottest new book in the Lake Hazel branch of the Ada Community Library had a waiting list more than 50 people strong. But it wasn’t just word-of-mouth advertising that propelled the book into must-read territory. It was also its exclusivity. Unlike most mass-produced works on library shelves, The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis is one-of-a-kind. And its author Dillon Helbig is eight-years-old.

Dillon made his authorial intent clear when, after writing and illustrating his 81-page creation by hand at home, he snuck it onto a library shelf during a recent visit with his grandmother. After returning home, he admitted the scheme to his mother, who immediately called the library to ask if anyone had seen it.

“It was a sneaky act,” said branch manager Alex Hartman. Dillon himself admitted this, calling his clandestine act “naughty-ish.” Nevertheless, Hartman was impressed, calling the book “far too obviously a special item for us to consider getting rid of it.” Hartman eventually read it to her six-year-old son, who loved it. She said:

Dillon is a confident guy and a generous guy. He wanted to share the story. I don’t think it’s a self-promotion thing. He just genuinely wanted other people to be able to enjoy his story. ... He’s been a lifelong library user, so he knows how books are shared.

The other librarians agreed that it met the criteria for inclusion onto its stacks. So, Hartman got Dillon’s permission to add a barcode to the back of The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis, and officially added it to the collection. They also gave Dillon a Best Young Novelist award, which they created specifically for him.

Dillon’s mom said, “His imagination is just constantly going, and he is a very creative little boy. He just comes up with these amazing stories and adventures, and we just kind of follow along.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Just like these librarians encouraged Dillon, we should also encourage the young people we encounter. We can promote their gifts and talents and prepare them to keep on serving others.

Dayvon Johnson probably didn’t wake up feeling like a hero. But few would argue that two sets of actions he took that day were anything less than heroic. The sixth grader at Muskogee’s Academy was hailed as a life-saver when a classmate began choking on the cap from a water bottle and stumbled into his classroom. The quick-thinking Johnson moved with alacrity. He performed a quick Heimlich maneuver and the bottle cap popped out of the student’s no-longer-blocked airway. When interviewed by the local newspaper, the eleven-year-old Dayvon said he learned the maneuver on YouTube.

But the life-saving didn’t stop there. Later that same day, Dayvon was walking in his neighborhood and noticed a house that was on fire. He saw an elderly woman trying to escape through her front door. Though the fire was only in the rear of the house, he didn’t want to wait. “I thought ‘oh, she’s not moving fast enough.’ So, I ran across the street and helped her to her truck.”

For his efforts, Dayvon was honored during a local meeting of the Muskogee School Board. School principal Latricia Dawkins said, “He is a dual hero. He is just a kind soul and well-liked by his peers and staff alike.” Also, the local police department proclaimed him as an honorary member of the force.

Dayvon’s mother LaToya Johnson said she was not surprised that her son stepped up the way that he did. She noted that her role-model brother--Dayvon’s uncle--is an EMT (emergency medical technician). However, she’s content to thrive in her own sacred role. “I’m just a proud mom.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

All of us are given opportunities to help others within our vicinity. Our job is to be ready to serve when called upon.

In standardized math tests, Japanese children consistently score higher than their American counterparts. Researchers have found that it has more to do with effort than ability. In a study involving first graders, students were given a difficult puzzle to solve. The researchers weren't interested in whether the children could solve the puzzle. They wanted to see how long they would try before giving up.

The American children lasted, on average, 9.47 minutes. The Japanese children lasted 13.93 minutes. In other words, the Japanese children tried 47 percent longer. Is it any wonder that they score higher on standardized math exams? Researchers concluded that the difference in math scores has less to do with intelligence quotient and more to do with persistence quotient. The Japanese first graders tried harder by trying longer.

Possible Preaching Angle:

That study does more than explain the difference in standardized math scores. It doesn't matter whether it's athletics or academics, music or math. There are no shortcuts. There are no cheat codes. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Assembling your office team is like putting together a puzzle. To succeed, you need to find the proper combination of complementary talents. Hiring a bunch of go-getters is not the sole solution to creating a successful team. Big egos and arrogance can turn the office into a battlefield--a killer for a small company. Instead, strive for balance as you hire.

Here are the six personalities every startup needs:

1. The Dreamer: The dreamer is a motivating force in creating the company and a sustaining force every day after. The dreamer inspires, excites, and leads the company from a sky-high view.

2. The Manager: The manager takes a dream and makes it happen. They are pragmatic, reliable, and have the initiative to turn ideas into action items. It’s all about being approachable, trust-worthy, and forward thinking.

3. The Builder: The builder thinks like an architect and has a clear understanding of the company vision and knows how to create it. He or she is intuitive, bright, and inventive.

4. The Workhorse: The workhorse is happy to step up and do whatever it takes to make the company engine purr. You will never hear the words: “It’s not my job” come out of this person’s mouth. The workhorse gets things done behind the scenes.

5. The Penny Pincher: The penny pincher never commits to a cost without first considering the options. He or she is creative with budgets, doesn’t spend unnecessarily and understands the difference between need and want.

6. The Social Butterfly: The person has the ability to create connections among team members, laugh at themselves and others, and shift perspective at the right time. They are an essential ingredient to strong morale and a happy team.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This variety of personality types (with their biblical titles) is also essential for a healthy church. God supplies each church with a diversity of spiritual gifts to equip the local body to best serve the church and the community. For example, the “dreamer” has the spiritual gift of faith, the “manager” has the gift of administration, the “builder” has the gift of leadership, the “workhorse” has the gift of serving, the “penny pincher” may have the gift of giving, and the “social butterfly” the gift of encouragement or showing mercy.

Sally-Lloyd Jones, the author of the popular Jesus Storybook Bible for Children, tells the following story about visiting the Museum of Modern Art in New York City:

A few years ago, I overheard someone commenting on a piece of [modern] non-representational art. I think it was a Rothko [a 20th century American abstract painter]. "My child could to that!" someone said. I take that as a compliment.

“My child could do that.” But really, isn't that the point? Artists like Rothko were specifically drawn to children's art. Picasso once said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

The power of a child's art is defined by what they can't do--by their lack. They know they can't do it. And as a result, their art is not about showing off skill or expertise. It's coming from somewhere else. It's all heart ... A child is physically not able to master [pencil or paints]. They struggle to depict things--and every line has heart ... The power of the art of a child comes not from their ability or their strength. It comes from their weakness, their not being able, their vulnerability.

Queen’s guitarist still plays the guitar made for him by his father. It was the early 1960’s and a teenage Brian May wanted an electric guitar. The relatively new instruments were still quite expensive—hundreds of dollars. Well beyond the means of the family’s budget. Brian’s father Harold was an electrical engineer and a hacker of sorts. Harold proposed the two build an electric guitar from scratch as a father-son project. This was the beginning of a two-year odyssey that resulted in the creation of one of the world’s most famous musical instruments.

They began to work on the guitar in August 1963, with the project taking two years to complete. The neck was constructed from a fireplace mantel that a friend was about to throw away. According to May, there are worm holes in the neck of the guitar that he filled with matchsticks.

The body was made from an old table. White plastic shelf edging was applied to the top and bottom edges to protect them from damage. The tremolo system is made from a bicycle saddlebag holder with a plastic knitting needle tip. Various replica models have been made; however, Brian still insists on playing the original, made for him by his father.

Possible Preaching Angle:

As you look at your life, you may see many things that are wrong, could be better, or broken. You may think that God wouldn’t use you, and would pass you by for a disciple who is far more gifted than you. However, Jesus sees you as precious and unique. He will not pass you by, but waits to make unique music with your life, consecrated to him. So, what are you waiting for?

A woman in her 30s was walking near the Kenagakawa River in Tokyo. Stepping out onto a pedestrian bridge that spans the river, she climbed over the chest-high railing and threw herself into the water below in an apparent suicide attempt.

The time was just after 5:30 on a Wednesday morning, and the bridge isn’t located in a particularly busy part of the neighborhood. Luckily, though, a 70-something local resident say the woman fall into the water. “Don’t die!” he shouted while whipping out his phone to call the paramedics, but it turned out that help was even closer by.

The closest building to the bridge just so happens to be a dormitory/training facility for sumo wrestlers. With the sumo wrestlers following an early-to-rise regimen, there were large men present and ready to spring into action. In total, approximately 20 wrestlers rushed to save the woman, who appeared to be drowning, and they were able to pull her out of the water and onto the safety of dry land.

The sumo wrestlers’ work wasn’t done yet, though. When the ambulance arrived, there was a 6.5-foot barricade between the bank and street level. Luckily, there was no shortage of muscular strength on-site. A number of the sumo wrestlers combined their might to lift the stretcher up onto the road, after which it was loaded into the ambulance and the woman taken to the hospital.

Doctors later reported that the woman suffered no serious injuries. Regardless of how the wrestler’s careers in the ring turn out, they’ve all proven themselves champions of outstanding kindness and quick-thinking.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Opportunity; Readiness - God will often put us in circumstances where our willingness and availability can be used to serve others. 2) Talents; Spiritual Gifts – You are uniquely gifted and each of us has a different talent with which we can serve God.

Caelie Wilkes was proud of her little succulent plant. But just when she was ready to take the next step in caring for it, she realized her efforts were all for naught. Wilkes said, “I was so proud of this plant. It was full, beautiful coloring, just an overall perfect plant … I had a watering plan for it, if someone else tried to water my succulent I would get so defensive because I just wanted to keep good care of it. I absolutely loved my succulent.”

When Wilkes decided it was ready to be transplanted into a larger vase, she was shocked to find that the plant was plastic. “I put so much love into this plant! I washed its leaves. Tried my hardest to keep it looking it’s best, and it’s completely plastic! How did I not know this? I pull it from the container it’s sitting on ... Styrofoam with sand glued to the top!”

Apparently, the plant’s inability to soak up water never clued in Wilkes about the nature of her plant, because real succulents don’t require much water. She’s since replaced the plant with several real succulents, purchased at a local home improvement chain store.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Outward signs of success are not always accurate indicators of health. What is inside a person may not match the appearance.

A vanilla shake is one of life’s simple pleasures, especially on a hot summer’s day. Did you know that vanilla traces its origin all the way back to a twelve-year-old slave boy living on a tiny island in the Indian Ocean? Vanilla is now the most popular spice in the world, but in 1841 the world produced fewer than two thousand vanilla beans, all in Mexico.

Up until the mid-19th century, vanilla orchids were pollinated exclusively by a particular genus of bee in Mexico. Over the years, as demand rose, attempts were made to industrialize the pollination process, to no avail. Vanilla was stubborn. All of this changed thanks to the ingenuity of that 12-year-old slave named Edmond Albius on a small island, 500 miles east of Madagascar. He was uneducated, yet he managed to solve one of the great botanical mysteries of the nineteenth century.

In 1822 a plantation owner on the island of Reunion was granted some vanilla plants from the French government. Only one of them survived, and nearly two decades later it still hadn't fruited. Without that bee pollinator, no one outside Mexico could get their plants to flower--that is, until Edmond worked his magic.

The owner was walking his plantation with Edmond in 1841 when he discovered, much to his surprise, that his vanilla vine had produced two beans! That’s when Edmond revealed, very matter-of-factly, that he had pollinated them by hand. The disbelieving plantation owner asked for a demonstration, so Edmond gently pinched the pollen-bearing anther and the pollen-receiving stigma between his thumb and index finger.

By 1858 Reunion was exporting two tons of vanilla. By 1867, it was up to twenty tons. And by 1898, it was two hundred tons. And it all traces back to a twelve-year-old boy named Edmond who hand pollinated a single vanilla vine. From that single vine, a billion-dollar industry was created.

Possible Preaching Angles: Hope; Insignificance; Persistence; Patience; Small things; – The least likely person can be used by God to bring about great changes if they use their gifts and opportunities regardless of their circumstances.

Nicole Hornback was attending the local high school homecoming parade when she noticed her two-year-old son Clarke was choking on a piece of candy. Hornback said, “I was sitting right next to him. I just happened to look over. There was no noise, no coughing, no breathing.” After trying and failing at the Heimlich maneuver, she called out in distress.

Meanwhile, cheerleader Tyra Winters, a senior at Rockwall High School, was waving to the crowd from a float. When she heard the call for help, she immediately leapt into action. Winters explained, “He was turning purple, so I immediately jumped off the float. I ran down to the kiddo, and I was like, ‘I got him.’ I grabbed him from the mom and tilted him and I gave a good three back thrusts and he ended up spitting up.”

“She saved my baby,” said Hornback. “I commend her for being a teenager and being trained.”

Possible Preaching Angle: Anyone can become God's vessel of healing and deliverance; all it takes is being willing to see the need and act accordingly to the Spirit's leading.

A half-century ago, America's dreams were realized in space. The power of US innovation and spirit took the Apollo 11 crew to the moon and back. That mission was possible because of a diverse team of engineers, astronauts, and mathematicians. It was also possible thanks to the help of one 10-year-old boy who was in the right place at the right time.

In 1969, Greg Force lived in Guam with his father, Charles Force. Charles worked as the director of a NASA tracking station that helped connect the capsule with NASA Mission Control for voice communication. After Apollo 11 began its departure from the moon, a problem arose. A bearing had broken in the dish antenna needed to track the ship. Without it, NASA risked losing the ability to communicate with the capsule as it approached Earth.

Scrambling to find a solution, Charles called home, hoping that Greg's child-size dimensions could be of assistance. He asked Greg to come to the tracking station and squeeze his arm through the antenna's access hole and pack grease around the bearing. The 10-year-old rose to the challenge and scampered up the ladder. Greg said, “I would take a big handful of grease—you know, you squish it. It comes out between your fingers, and I stuck them down in there and packed them the best I could.”

Greg succeeded, and a NASA public affairs officer noted his contribution in an announcement: “The bearing was replaced with the assistance of a 10-year-old boy named Greg Force who had arms small enough that he could work through a 2.5 inch diameter hole to pack [the bearing].”

The Apollo 11 moon landing succeeded with the help of a 10-year-old boy and the rest is history.