Action

In a 2022 behavioral study, researchers explored the connection between anger and moral courage. While participants were supposedly waiting for the study to start, they overheard two experimenters plan, and then execute, the embezzlement of money from the project fund. (The embezzlement was staged.) The participants had various opportunities to intervene, including directly confronting the experimenters, involving a fellow participant, or reporting to a superior.

Depending on your perspective of the events of the last few years, you may or may not be surprised to learn that only 27% of participants intervened. (Other experiments confirm the natural human inclination towards passivity). Interestingly, researchers found that the more an individual reported feeling angry, the more likely they were to intervene, showing that anger can serve as an important catalyst for moral courage.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Often the anger of man does not achieve God’s purposes, but there is a place for “righteous anger” at what is wrong and evil.

Lack of transportation is an obstacle many homeless people face in rural areas without public buses as well as in big cities designed for cars. Without a bicycle or a friend with a vehicle, the homeless are stranded, sometimes unable to pick up prescriptions, go to food pantries, or hold down a job.

Enter Roberta Harmon, a street minister recognizable by her white heart-shaped glasses and fiery red hair who fixes up old bicycles for homeless people who need them to get to jobs. Harmon has given out roughly 1,000 bikes. She has also worked with volunteer mechanics for eight years—scavenging rummage sales and garbage bins on bulk pickup days and building bikes with salvaged parts. The police department also donates lost or unclaimed bicycles it recovers to her.

Harmon said, “We realized that people could get a ride to the interview but then once they got the job, the rides dried up. So how were they supposed to keep their jobs?”

She learned her mechanic skills on YouTube and from growing up poor; in a pinch, she will substitute lip balm for grease, and nest a small tire inside a larger one with screws in it for do-it-yourself snow tires. Her latest project: refurbishing trashed lawn mowers in hopes of starting a landscaping company that can employ people who are unhoused.

“I don’t want to help you stay in a pit,” said Harmon, who adds that many anti-poverty organizations aren’t effective.

Authorities say that, due to a clerical error, a suspected murderer was released from county jail, but he’s now safely back behind bars.

A warrant for arrest was issued for 22-year-old Amarion Sanders who’d previously been held in the Cuyahoga County Jail on $1 million bail. Sanders was facing aggravated murder charges in connection with a shooting in September of 2023.

Sanders was released on June 24, because another defendant in an otherwise unrelated case had his charges dismissed, and one of the court personnel incorrectly entered that case number into the database for dismissal. The next day, the second arrest warrant was issued, and Sanders was re-arrested without incident.

County, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service, helped search for Sanders.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This is a great story to teach the lesson that small mistakes can have big consequences. It is important to maintain a system of checks and balances and to take immediate action when an error is discovered.

A 71-year-old Swedish man was in his driveway shoveling snow in the Swedish city of Trollhättan, when he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. Normally, you have about ten minutes to get help in such a situation and ambulance response times are often too long to save the life of the patient. Typically, only ten percent of people survive sudden cardiac arrest.

Luckily, a telephone call was immediately placed requesting emergency services and the man lived in a region that had partnered with Everdrone’s innovative life-saving program. Everdrones deliver an automated external defibrillator (AED) to the scene. The amount of time from the alarm until the AED was safely delivered at the doorstep of the incident address was just over three minutes.

Even more fortuitous, a doctor happened to be driving by and stopped to see if he could help. Dr. Mustafa Ali said, “I was on my way to work at the local hospital when I looked out the car window and saw a man collapsed in his driveway and I immediately rushed to help. The man had no pulse, so I started doing CPR while asking another bystander to call the Swedish emergency number. Just minutes later, I saw something flying above my head. It was a drone with a defibrillator!”

After the initial treatment on site, the ambulance arrived, the patient was rushed to the hospital. “This is a truly revolutionary technology that needs to be implemented all over,” said the patient who now has made a full recovery and returned home. “If it wasn’t for the drone I probably wouldn’t be here.”

The company behind the drone pilot project says it’s the first time in medical history that a drone has played a crucial part in saving a life during a cardiac arrest. The drone carries an ultralight defibrillator, which can be used by any bystander.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Good Samaritan; Social Action – We should always be ready to speed help to others in time of need; 2) Action; Help from God; Prayer, answered – When God decides to take action, he moves faster than we can imagine, help is immediate (Isa. 65:24).

In what has been called “the greatest pro-life speech of all time,” the now-deceased Christian leader Richard John Neuhaus shared the turning point on abortion. He was a pastor of what he described as a “very poor, very black, inner-city parish in Brooklyn, New York.” Neuhaus had just read an article by a distinguished professor at Princeton named Ashley Montagu. Montagu listed the following qualifications for “a life worth living”—good health, a stable family, economic security, educational opportunity, the prospect of a satisfying career to realize the fullness of one’s potential.

Neuhaus wrote:

And I remember vividly looking out the next Sunday morning at [my congregation] and seeing all those older faces creased by hardship endured and injustice afflicted, and yet radiating hope undimmed and love unconquered. And I saw the younger faces of children deprived of most, if not all, of those qualifications on Prof. Montagu’s list. And it struck me then, like a bolt of lightning … that Prof. Montagu believed that the people of [our church]—people of faith and kindness and endurance and, by the grace of God, hope unvanquished—that, by (his) criteria, none of these my people had a life worth living. In that moment, I knew that a great evil was afoot. The culture of death is an idea before it is a deed. In that moment, I knew that I had been recruited to the cause of the culture of life.

For NFL player James Smith-Williams, it started with a challenge. The Washington Commanders defensive end was a student at North Carolina State University when he heard a speaker named Brenda Tracy talk about her experience surviving sexual assault. James told reporters, “Her biggest takeaway was, ‘If you’re a good man, what are you doing to be a good man?’ That really stuck with me.”

Once he entered the NFL, Smith-Williams partnered with Tracy’s nonprofit to establish a network of players who raise money and awareness for nonprofits that support survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault. Because October has been deemed as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, he has been supporting the Purple Leash Project. This initiative seeks to make domestic violence shelters more friendly for pets, because of their potential for emotional support.

According to Smith-Williams, only 15% of current shelters even allow pets. “About half of the people who are in domestic violence situations delay leaving because of their pet. Pets are family too. Ensuring that people who have pets and who are in these situations have a place to go, I just think that is so important.”

Smith-Williams recently helped build doghouses at a local shelter who received a Purple Leash Project grant. He also wore a pair of purple cleats during a game in support of the charity. “As long as I have the ability to help out, I definitely will.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Having an effective witness is more than just avoiding sinful or abusive behavior. It’s also taking action in helping to defend and assist people suffering abuse in order to demonstrate the love of God to people who hurting.

Mount Walker, about 60 miles northwest of Seattle, is said to have remarkable views. But one woman’s unforgettable experience atop the mountain restricted her field of view considerably. That’s because she fell into a pit toilet trying to rescue her phone.

According to Fire Department Chief Tim Manly, she was using her phone on the pit toilet when it fell inside. She first tried to remove the toilet seat in order to reach in, and then used her dog leash as a makeshift rope to lower herself in. That effort, however, failed--dropping her headfirst into the toilet.

Once reunited with her phone, she tried and failed to climb out. After that didn’t work, she called 911 for help. Once firefighters arrived on the scene, they used a surprisingly low-tech solution: cinder blocks, which she used to stand on. After she was high enough, they were able to attach a harness and lift her out of the toilet.

According to the department’s statement, the woman was uninjured and strongly encouraged to seek medical attention, but she only wanted to leave. Chief Manly said, “I’ve been doing this for 40 years. And that was a first.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sometimes when we think we can fix things on our own we end up making things worse. Sometimes God prompts us to take action; other times, to wait until proper help can arrive. Wisdom is in discerning the difference between the two.

In a nation of freedom-loving people, we emphasize liberation. But according to author Pete Davis, liberation is not enough. He writes:

Freedom isn’t sufficient for a fulfilling life. The car lets us go anywhere and the internet lets us see anything—but happiness has not come automatically. Despite our ability to think freely, to find all the cracks in the stories we have been told—the world we want to live in has not automatically emerged from the ashes of the old one. The liberated spirit has helped avoid some tragedies, but it hasn’t built global peace. It has helped diagnose the maladies of our time, but it hasn’t figured out a cure.

A free world requires creativity, belief, unity, and inspiration, too. That’s because liberation is only half of the story of who we are. The other half is dedication. People want to be free, but we want to be free to then do something. ... We leave, but we don’t cleave. We desecrate, but we don’t consecrate. We melt down, but we don’t solidify into something else.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Christ has come to make us free, but that does not mean a life without rules. Unbound freedom is not a blessing. It's chaos. The solution is a voluntary wholehearted dedication to something greater than ourselves. The solution is to “lose our lives” for Christ’s sake (Matt. 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24).

In his book Making Sense of God, Tim Keller notes that when the national anthem is sung at sporting events, the cheering begins on the line “o’er the land of the free.” The singer quite often extends that line with a lengthy high note. Keller writes, “Even though the song goes on to talk about ‘the brave,’ this is an afterthought. Both the melody line and our culture highlight freedom as the main theme and value of our society.”

But true love imposes limits on our obsession on freedom. The film Secondhand Lions captures this well. In a scene near the end of the film, a small fatherless boy who has been abandoned by his mother to be raised by his crazy great-uncles. The boy tells one of his uncles, who is prone to depression and has contemplated taking his own life, that he cannot do that because he, the small boy, needs him. “You're my uncle. I need you to stick around and be my uncle.” The faithfulness of love will shape—and constrain—the freedom of love.

The elderly, disabled, and working single parents are just some of the people on the receiving end of generosity in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. The mantra remained the same for Bethel Park High School football coach Brian DeLallo as his players traded dumbells for shovels: Use your legs and keep your back tight.

DeLallo said, “We would have been in the weight room doing squats, and bench press and power cleans.” But with one simple tweet, DeLallo changed the plan, finding the snowfall as an opportunity to allow his players to give back.

More than six inches of snow blanketed western Pennsylvania overnight. Before the snow started to fall, DeLallo relayed a message to his players through Twitter:

Due to expected severe weather, Monday’s weightlifting workout has been cancelled. Find an elderly or disabled neighbor and shovel their driveway. Don’t accept any money - that’s our Monday workout.

From sidewalks to long driveways all along the streets of Bethel Park, the team took the weightlifting practice to Mother Nature. The connection between the community and team makes Coach DeLallo proud. “You get a lot more out of this than ‘did you bench press 300 pounds today?’ This is really cool. It’s a chance to connect with the community and you don’t get many of those, so this is nice.”

The players tackled dozens of their neighbors’ driveways and at least 25 players texted Coach DeLallo to tell them they did it and felt great. One player said that he’s looking forward to some hot chocolate and watching a movie with his teammates as they defrost.

Possibly overlooked by many is the fact that on at least one occasion, Jesus cooked for his disciples. John 21:9 records that the disciples had been out fishing. When they came to shore, they found Jesus on the beach with a meal. “When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.”

Avery Gilbert, psychologist and fragrance scientist, writes that cooking is much more than just preparing a meal, it is an invitation. The savory notes of roasted meat and baked bread stimulate us enroute to a meal.

Food aroma is an invitation and a spur to action. Even before the first bite, it triggers an elaborate sequence of physiological events: salivation, insulin release by the pancreas, and the secretion of various digestive juices. The aroma of bacon, at a level so faint it can’t be consciously identified, has been shown to trigger the flow of saliva.

Possible Preaching Angles:

Jesus offers everyone an open invitation to eat and drink with him. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Rev. 3:20). “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Rev. 19:9).

When residents saw the Christmas tree unveiled in downtown Newport, Washington, some of them were less than impressed. Fritz Turner said, “It wasn’t really great. Kinda poorly decorated. It’s almost like they didn’t have the time for it this year. They were just kinda like ‘throw the lights up, get it done.’”

When Turner saw what he felt was such a pitiful display, he got an idea. “I wanted to make a joke of it really, so I made a GoFundMe.” On the listing, he promised to take the money to purchase and decorate a better-looking Christmas tree, but he also dropped in a few barbs. “Even Charlie Brown's Christmas tree looked better than this sad spruce. When they put these lights up, the value of our homes dropped.”

Clearly Turner was not the only one feeling that way, because the post collected more than $2,700 from over 60 donors in a matter of days. Additionally, there were people who donated directly to the city of Newport, earmarking their funds specifically for the Christmas tree.

All the commotion got the attention of Jason Totland, president of the Newport Chamber of Commerce. Totland quickly mobilized 30 or so volunteers to stage a tree-lighting ceremony, complete with hot chocolate, an appearance from Santa Claus, and giveaways for kids.

Turner said, “I’m really inspired by how quick the community gathered to put on this event. It’s really cool that something that started out as a joke became something so big, and I’m just inspired to do more work for the community.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Good natured humorous “snarking” can serve as an opportunity to call attention to something that needs correction and seek the good of the community. When done correctly, criticism can result in positive action.

Two middle school students are being praised for their quick action when their bus driver experienced a medical emergency. Conner Doss and Kane Daugherty are students at East Paulding Middle School outside Atlanta and were on a full bus when the incident happened. Doss said, " I come in the aisle and look down. Miss Julie's face is bright red and shaking,"

The driver managed to pull over and that's when they realized something was wrong. Daugherty said, “I hear her say, 'Hey! Somebody help!' So, I run up. She's over here shaking really bad. I picked up the [dispatch radio], I said, 'Somebody help. Our bus driver feels really dizzy.'” The dispatcher was able to call 911, help the boys set the emergency brake, flashing lights and emergency stop arm.

Daugherty said, "We know she has diabetes, so we thought maybe it was an attack. We got her to drink Coke, eat cookies, and all of that.” In addition to helping the driver, Doss also made sure his classmates stayed calm and knew everything was okay.

The boys were also waving down cars from the bus windows, and caught the attention of a pastor, who came on to pray with the panicking students. Daugherty said, “That was a moment of relief, for Miss Julie and for us to know God was on our side.”

School leaders said the driver is recovering but hasn't yet returned to work. Principal Tom Alverson said:

I am incredibly proud of Kane and Conner for jumping into action to help their bus driver and make sure their classmates were safe. Because of their quick and decisive actions, a potentially dangerous situation was avoided. The care, respect, and love they showed for Ms. Julie has been incredible, and it is a great example of not only their character, but the true spirit of all East Paulding Middle School students. All of our students are amazing, and Kane and Conner demonstrated just how amazing they are.

While Colin Farrell was in Toronto promoting a film, he befriended a homeless man called Stress. Stress told the Irish actor that he was struggling with depression and alcohol and he didn’t know how to straighten out his life. Farrell said he would check on him soon to make sure he was getting better.

Several days later, a local radio station offered listeners $2,000 if they could get Colin Farrell to come in for a chat. When Farrell heard this, he located Stress and headed to the radio station, pretending that Stress had found him. As a result, the station gave Stress the $2,000 reward.

Four years later, Farrell found himself in Toronto again and decided to meet up with Stress again. This time, Farrell took him on a shopping spree and gave him rent money. Farrell made him join an addiction recovery group. Years later, Stress (who now goes by his real name, David Woods) made a full recovery and got a roof over his head. Woods said he would’ve been completely lost if it wasn’t for Farrell’s intervention.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor …” (Luke 4:18). He calls us to follow in his footsteps—bringing good news to the poor, setting the captives free.

In the early hours of June 24, 2021, part of a slab from a high-rise condo building in Surfside, Florida dropped into the parking garage below. Within minutes, the east wing of the 13-story tower collapsed, killing 98 people in a disaster without modern precedent in the US.

Designed in the late 1970s, the 136-unit Champlain Towers South was completed in 1981 and marketed as luxury living. Officials are still investigating why the tower fell. Engineers point to some key decisions during construction, that while legal at the time, compromised the buildings foundation and integrity.

For instance, a Wall Street Journal report concluded:

[The original builders] skipped waterproofing in areas where saltwater could seep into concrete, the available evidence indicates. They put the building’s structural slabs on thin columns without the support of beams in some places. They installed too few of the special heavy walls that help keep buildings from toppling, engineers say, features that could have limited the extent of the collapse. And they appeared to have put too little concrete over rebar in some places and not enough rebar in others, design plans and photos of the rubble indicate.

Tragically, the construction flaws could have been repaired. The report continued:

Engineers say some issues would have been fixable, had the property’s condo board done more extensive repairs sooner. By 1996, the slab started showing cracks, and pieces of concrete had fallen off the garage ceiling, unusual so soon after construction. Workers patched cracks and waterproofed the pool deck, but that too eventually failed.

But the condo board failed to act. Roof work began weeks before the collapse, but repairs to the steel-reinforced concrete hadn’t yet started.

In what may be one of the most Italian things that has ever happened, the Italian State Police rushed a donor kidney from Padua to Rome for a transplant in a Lamborghini Huracan. The journey is around 300 miles, but with the help of a specially-outfitted supercar, the police made it happen in just about two hours at an average speed of 143 mph—and that’s a journey that normally takes around six.

Yes, the Italian Police own a Lamborghini and use it as a regular ol’ patrol vehicle most of the time. It’s outfitted with lights, a police computer, and other equipment for traffic stops and arrests. That said, though, the machine isn’t exactly ideal for the day-to-day (where, exactly, do you intend to put someone that you’ve arrested?). It’s still cool for these more extreme circumstances, though.

But for this specific instance, the “frunk” (front trunk) came in handy. The police force turned it into a refrigerated compartment for organ transport for the delivery of other temperature-sensitive medical supplies. With a 202-mph top speed and a 0-60 time of 2.8 seconds, it’s one efficient vehicle for these high-speed runs.

The Italian police actually own a few different Lambos. It’s a pretty solid use of a supercar, although folks on Twitter have wondered why Italian officials didn’t use a helicopter to transport the kidney. A Google Maps view of the starting hospital, doesn’t seem to show a helipad or an easily accessible flat area nearby, so a Lamborghini likely made the most sense here.

I hope the receiver of the kidney knows how it was transported. I know that, personally, I’d work to make sure that kidney is well-appreciated for as long as it lasts.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Good Samaritan; Social Action – We should always be ready to speed help to others in time of need; 2) Action; Help from God; Prayer, answered – When God decides to take action, he moves faster than we can imagine, help is immediate (Isa. 65:24).

They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But for one doctor, the cost of lacking such prevention is much more costly. In fact, it’s costing people their lives. Dr. Brytney Cobia is at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, and she’s been treating coronavirus patients, some who are vaccinated, and some who aren’t. The difference between those who make it and those who don’t is as obvious as it is heartbreaking. She said,

I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections. One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.

As of July (2021), the state of Alabama had the lowest vaccination rate of the nation, with only about 33% of its residents fully vaccinated. Because of the rise of the virus’ Delta variant, Alabama hospitals are experiencing a dramatic surge in COVID-related hospital visits. And according to Dr. Cobia, deathly sickness in someone’s inner circle is the only thing that will get some folks to consider taking the vaccine.

A few days later when I call time of death, I hug their family members and I tell them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same.

They cry. And they tell me they didn't know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldn't get as sick. But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can't. So, they thank me, and they go get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write the death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Lives are damaged and even lost when people choose a convenient untruth instead of an inconvenient truth. Some refuse to take heed until the danger is imminent, but by then it's often too late to do anything meaningful. The time to act with prudence is before the danger overwhelms. 2) In the spiritual realm people also procrastinate making a decision for salvation and it threatens their eternal destiny.

Leonardo da Vinci is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. As an artist, he is known for The Last Supper and The Mona Lisa among others. However, his total output in painting is really rather small. There are less than 17 surviving paintings that can be definitely attributed to him, and several of them are unfinished.

The small number of surviving paintings is due in part to his chronic procrastination. He often required a sharp threat by his patrons that they were about to withhold payment to motivate him. The Mona Lisa took over 15 years for him to finish. Worse was The Virgin of the Rocks, commissioned with a seven-month deadline. Da Vinci finished it 25 years later. Da Vinci apologized on his deathbed "to God and Man for leaving so much undone."

Possible Preaching Angle:

God calls his people to build his kingdom--to transform people in the name of Jesus. However, many of us procrastinate. Other “more important” things get in the way. There will come a day when we may look back upon our lives with regret for the things left unfinished.