Devotion

When it comes to the ultimate test of devotion, fewer than half of Americans would give a piece of themselves to save someone they care about. A revealing new survey has found that just 39% of Americans would be willing to donate an organ to family or friends—a striking discovery that sheds light on where people draw the boundary of personal sacrifice.

The study of 2,000 U.S. adults, explored various dimensions of loyalty in both personal relationships and consumer behavior. While organ donation may be a step too far for many, Americans demonstrate commitment in other meaningful ways.

More than half (53%) would endure waiting in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles for someone they care about. Additionally, 62% would put their reputation on the line by acting as a reference for a loved one’s apartment or job application.

Perhaps the most revealing statistic is how Americans would handle unexpected good fortune. An overwhelming 82% said they would share a windfall of $100,000 with family and friends—indicating that while many might hesitate to share their kidneys, they’re quite willing to share their cash.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Selfishness; Self-centeredness – It is amazing how selfish people are becoming when called to make a very personal sacrifice for their very “flesh and blood” relatives; 2) Christ, sacrifice of – This also highlights the amazing sacrifice Jesus made for his “brothers and sisters” when he said “Take and eat. This is my body” (Matt. 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:24) and “he himself bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24).

In his memoir, Everything Sad Is Untrue, Daniel Nayeri tells the gripping story of his mother’s conversion from a devout Muslim background to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. She gave up wealth and social status, eventually being forced to flee from Iran under a death threat. But she was willing to pay the price. Nayeri writes about one example of her costly faith:

One time she hung a little cross necklace from the rearview mirror of her car, which was probably a reckless thing to do. ... My mom was like that. One day after work, she went to her car, and there was a note stuck to the windshield. It said, “Madame Doctor, if we see this cross again, we will kill you.”

To my dad, [who is not a Christian], this is the kind of story that proves his point. That my mom was picking a fight. That she could’ve lived quietly and saved everyone the heartaches that would come. If she had kept her head down. If she stopped telling people. If she pretended just a few holidays a year, that nothing had changed. She could still have everything.

My mom took the cross down that day. Then she got a cross so big it blocked half the windshield, and she put it up. Why would anybody live with their head down? Besides, the only way to stop believing something is to deny it yourself. To hide it. To act as if it hasn’t changed your life.

Another way to say it is that everybody is dying and going to die of something. And if you’re not spending your life on the stuff you believe, then what are you even doing? What is the point of the whole thing? It’s a tough question, because most people haven’t picked anything worthwhile.

The 150th anniversary of Canadian missionary George Leslie Mackay’s arrival in Taiwan was celebrated in 2022. Perhaps the country’s most beloved 19th-century Westerner, churches have reenacted his arrival, and several books are being published about the missionary. The Taiwan government even has a bio of him on their website. So, what made this foreigner worthy of this level of affection more than 100 years after his death?

In 1872, the Canadian Presbyterian missionary arrived in northern Taiwan (then called Formosa). Over the next 29 years, Mackay planted more than 60 churches and baptized more than 3,000 people. He started a college and a graduate school of theology. Mackay Memorial Hospital, named in his honor, is now a large downtown hospital in Taipei.

He also provided medical treatment. He and his students would sing a hymn to patients, extract their teeth, and then preach the gospel to them. Over the years, Mackay became known for having pulled thousands of teeth.

He insisted on identifying with Taiwan and the Taiwanese. Mackay spent more than half of the 57 years of his life on the island. Upon his arrival in Taiwan, he immediately began learning the language from the local boys herding water buffalo. Unlike most Western missionaries, he married a local woman, and they had three children. Embracing Taiwan as his adopted homeland, he touched the hearts of many Taiwanese and contributed to the conversion of many to Christianity.

Before he passed, Mackay captured his love for the country by writing a still widely beloved poem: “How dear is Formosa to my heart! On that island the best of my years have been spent. A lifetime of joy is centered here … My heart’s ties to Taiwan cannot be severed! To that island I devote my life.”

How many smells are there? It’s an odd question, but give it some thought. Mentally flip through the pages of your personal smell catalog. You find burnt toast, shaving cream, Grandma’s kitchen, and pine trees. With a little effort you can come up with a lot of smells, but putting a number to them is difficult. How does one count the odors of a lifetime, much less all the odors in the world?

Author Avery Gilbert explores estimates from various scientists, fragrance manufacturers, and chemists who suggest that humans can detect anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 different smells. Researchers have found that no two people smell things the same way. There’s a scientific reason for it, and it all has to do with your DNA. There are about 400 genes coding for the receptors in our noses, and there are more than 900,000 variations of those genes. These receptors control the sensors that determine how we smell odors. A given odor will activate a suite of receptors in the nose, creating a specific signal for the brain.

Possible Preaching Angles:

Scripture often speaks of the uniqueness of fragrances. For example, 1) Christians spread the fragrance of Christ to others. Some people will be attracted and others will be repelled (2 Cor. 2:14-16); 2) Our prayers and sacrifice are a pleasing aroma to God (Ex. 29:18).

For decades the media in all its forms have created celebrities that are framed, groomed, and packaged solely for the purpose of dissemination through mass media. Many people, some living frustrated lives, live vicariously through the allegedly exciting lives of these glamorous personalities, representing hopes and dreams personally unfulfilled.

The result is that we have created synthetic celebrities whom we worship, however briefly, because they vicariously act out our noblest or basest desires. For impressionable young people, “celebrity worship syndrome” has resulted in:

Symptoms of depression and anxiety. Lower levels of critical thinking and cognitive abilities Impaired social skills. Maladaptive daydreaming that interferes with work, school, or relationships. Desire for fame, which is often linked with a lack of self-acceptance. Compulsive buying and materialism. Difficulties with romantic relationships.

When the Titanic crashed into an iceberg, the ship’s resources--light, electricity, heat, and so on--instantly were in danger of failing. However, the engineers who were in the engine room worked to supply electricity by keeping the engines and generators operational to ensure the survival of as many passengers as possible. Had the lights and wireless telegraph failed, panic would have been rife and it would have been impossible to summon assistance, or lower her lifeboats safely. But through their efforts power was maintained for the wireless set until ten minutes before she sank, with the lights failing just two minutes before she sank.

Although 1,517 people died on the Titanic, the death toll would’ve been much higher if it hadn’t been for the efforts of these engineers. All 25 engineers and 10 electricians and boilermakers were lost as they stayed below in the boiler rooms, in order to maintain power and lights. None of the them survived the sinking. A monument was built to them called the Memorial to the Engine Room Heroes of the Titanic. It was the first monument in British history to depict the working man.

Possible Preaching Angle:

These brave engineers laid down their lives so that others might live. The Apostle John writes: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16).

Poet Amy B Hunter writes:

Five years ago I had emergency surgery. My sister, a professor with final exams to give, was getting married in less than a week. Yet she drove from New York City to Massachusetts in a snowstorm to see me in the hospital. No phone call would reassure her that I was alive. She had to see me with her own eyes.

Sometimes the demand to see is not doubt. Sometimes it is even love.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Thomas wanted proof of the resurrected Christ. Thomas’ words, “My Lord and my God!” is the high point of John’s Gospel. No one else has offered such devotion or named Jesus as God. Thomas held out for a personal experience of Jesus on his own terms.

The skies were stormy as Father James Quinn, chaplain for the FBI’s Miami office, began to offer his public remarks. “Even the heavens are crying,” said Quinn, as he addressed the crowd of loved ones and coworkers gathered to remember FBI Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger. “She led a life of sheer determination, dedication and courage,” according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Laura Schwartzenberger was killed alongside Special Agent Daniel Alfin during a child pornography investigation. The agents were killed and four others were wounded after the man at the center of the investigation opened fire while they attempted to serve a search warrant at his residence.

Laura was known as a tireless advocate for children. As she spent seven years working crimes against children. According to Wray, she experienced “the very worst parts of humanity. It’s a job with high stress, high emotional toll, and high burnout. But Laura never stopped.”

She was also known as a tireless athlete who used her fitness for good. She had the distinction as being the only female member of the Albuquerque SWAT team in its history. Michelle Brown, the gym owner where Schwartzenberger was known for her 5am Cross-Fit workouts, called her “a true hero.”

Director Wray said that Laura’s presence was so deeply felt in her community that several parents of victims from previous investigations reached out to ask how they could help care for her family. He said, “They asked how they can help Laura’s two boys. And that speaks volumes about what Laura meant to this community.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

A life given in service is never wasted; on the contrary, we live up to the highest ideals of the gospel of Jesus when we work to right the scales of justice and protect society’s most vulnerable. In so doing, we are affirming the value of every human life as worth protecting.

When U2 were recording their album the Joshua Tree, they spent more time working on the song “Where the Streets Have No Name” than the rest of the album put together. Brian Eno, the producer became so frustrated that he secretly planned to “stage an accident” and erase the tape of the song, so that they would have to start again. He thought they were getting nowhere and would never finish. At one point the sound engineer came into the studio and saw what was happening. He lunged at Eno who was about to hit the switch to erase the tape. There was a scuffle, and the tape remained intact.

Brian Eno was stopped, and U2 finished the song. Ultimately, "Where the Streets Have No Name" was praised by critics and became a commercial success, peaking at #13 in the US. The song has remained a staple of their live act since the song debuted in 1987.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sometimes it’s good to start afresh. To walk away from a mess. But sometimes it’s right to persevere through thick and thin. You might feel like giving up on your marriage, your church, your job, but God wants you to stick in. Don't give up. Paul says “Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up” (Ga. 6:9).

Ad executive Douglas Atkin notes that a transformation has taken place in what's expected of the typical ad executive at a major corporation. Rather than being responsible for design, packaging, and promotion, the brand manager is now asked "to create … a meaning system for people through which they get identity and an understanding of the world.” Advertising is asked to induce devotion by investing products with transcendence.

So, Atkin asked himself, “What makes people exhibit cult-like devotion?” He thus undertook a study of cults precisely in order to figure out how brands could induce "loyalty beyond reason." When he heard people rhapsodize about sneakers or paper plates in terms that he described as "evangelical,” he realized that people join brands for the same reasons they join cults and religions: to belong and to make meaning. They ceased being merely customers and now identified themselves as disciples, as "members of the tribe" whether that tribe be VW owners, Starbucks drinkers, or Mac users. The advertisements for these products do not convey information about them; rather, they tell stories—they picture worlds of meaning and invite us to see ourselves within them.

The goal of such marketing, this (very secular) documentary concludes, is "to fill the empty places where non-commercial institutions like schools and churches might have once done the job." They amount to "an invitation to a longed-for lifestyle.”

Aaron Smith was tired of the typical online dating scene. But unlike most people with that same sense of dissatisfaction, he took a unique course of action. Smith reached out to software engineering friend Scott McDowell, who helped to develop a new dating app entitled Singularity. It’s tagline? “Online Dating Simplified.”

Smith said, “The biggest problem with other apps is that my face isn’t featured prominently.” He went on to explain the app’s killer feature--the lack of other male competition. He’s the only one on the app, and as users swipe for more options, they get a variety of different pictures of Smith in different outfits and locations. He said, “If life gives you lemons, you should first make lemonade. Then make sure no other companies can produce or distribute their own soft drinks. So, the only game in town is lemonade.”

Smith has yet to meet that special someone, but he remains upbeat and optimistic. He said, “Hopefully it will give people a chuckle about just the absurdity of what we’re reduced to as a society.”

Potential Preaching Angles: God isn’t insecure, but is jealous over our devotion. God wants to be our number one priority, and sometimes will remove distractions that get in the way.

In his classic history of the Civil War, author Shelby Foote relates the story of Commodore Andrew H. Foote who partnered with Ulysses S. Grant to capture Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. Commodore Foote commanded a fleet of ironclads and other vessels that supported Grant in his assault.

According to Shelby Foote:

Commodore Andrew H. Foote was a Connecticut Yankee, a small man with burning eyes … He was deeply … religious, and conducted a Bible school for his crew every Sunday, afloat or ashore. Twenty years before, he had had the first temperance ship in the U.S. Navy … At fifty-six he had spent forty years as a career officer fighting the two things he hated most, slavery and whiskey ...

When Grant ordered Foote to attack Fort Donelson:

Foote would have preferred to wait until he had had time to make a personal reconnaissance. But Grant’s request was for an immediate attack and the commodore prepared to give it to him. He had done considerable waiting already, a whole week of it while the armorers were hammering his ironclads back into shape. All this time he had kept busy, supervising the work ... Nor were spiritual matters neglected. The day before the attack he attended church at Cairo. When he was told that the parson was indisposed, Foote mounted to the pulpit and preached the sermon himself. “Let not your heart be troubled,” was his text: “ye believe in God, believe also in me.” Next day, having thus admonished and fortified his crews, he sent one ironclad up the Cumberland to attack Fort Donelson.

Possible Preaching Angles: In the same way, we often need to preach the gospel, the good news of God’s promises, to ourselves first.

Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said, “What we are worshiping we are becoming.” In other words, our deities shape our identities. Let us call this Emerson’s Law and consider it in the lives of two men:

The evolutionary scientist Charles Darwin once wrote in his autobiography:

“My chief enjoyment and sole employment throughout life has been scientific work." From this work, he added, "I am never idle," as it is "the only thing which makes life endurable to me.” What effect did devoting himself to scientific work have on the person Darwin became?

Up to the age of thirty poetry … gave me great pleasure, and … I took intense de­light in Shakespeare. … But now for many years I … found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me … My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts. (This) loss is a loss of happiness … (I became) “a withered leaf for every subject except Science" (which he saw as "a great evil”).

Now consider Emerson's Law at work in the life of another influential genius, theologian Jonathan Edwards.

At age 19, Edwards wrote, “Resolved ... to cast my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him.” Later in his life Edwards reflected on how his object of worship affected his soul over the years: "[It] brought an inexpressible purity, brightness, peacefulness and ravishment to the soul. In other words, it made the soul like a field or garden.”

Two gifted men. One became “a withered leaf” and the other a “garden.” The object of their ultimate devotion shaped the very different kind of men these two became.

In June 2017, 33-year-old rock climber Alex Honnold, scaled El Capitan. That’s a 3,000 foot granite rock in Yosemite national park, widely considered the most challenging wall in the world. He was the first person to make the climb “free solo"--with no equipment or ropes--at one point hanging from just his thumbs 1,000 feet above the ground. He lives most of the year out of a van, a lifestyle known as “dirtbagging," which he calls “an intentional choice to prioritize your vocation."

Honnold says, “I want to climb in the best places in the world, and that’s my focus. So I’m willing to give up having stability, having a shower, having whatever in order to climb the way that I want." He goes on to say, “I am probably more intentional with the way I live my life than virtually anybody. I have made clear choices about what I find value in, what risks I am willing to take. I am doing exactly what I love to do. It’s very easy for someone sitting on the couch at home to condemn it as crazy and stupid. But I can justify all my choices--can you say the same about your life?”

Possible Preaching Angles: Honnold's commitment, especially his searching question, should challenge every follower of Jesus. Are we serving the greatest quest and the greatest Lord in the universe with the same amount of tenacity and devotion?

In his New York Times bestselling book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, Daniel Pink explains the value of being a little behind. In the world of sports, a team that's ahead at halftime—in any sport—is more likely than its opponent to win the game. This has little to do with the limits of personal motivation and everything to do with the heartlessness of probability. But researchers have noted one peculiar exception.

Jonah Berger of the University of Pennsylvania and Devin Pope of the University of Chicago analyzed more than 18,000 National Basketball Association games over fifteen years, paying special attention to the games' scores at halftime. It's not surprising that teams ahead at halftime won more games than teams that were behind … However, Berger and Pope detected an exception to the rule: Teams that were behind by just one point were more likely to win. Indeed, being down by one at halftime was more advantageous than being up by one. Home teams with a one-point deficit at halftime won more than 58 percent of the time. Indeed, trailing by one point at halftime, weirdly, was equivalent to being ahead by two points.

Berger and Pope then looked at ten years' worth of NCAA college basketball games, nearly 46,000 games in all, and found the same effect. "Being slightly behind [at halftime] significantly increases a team's chance of winning," they write. And when they examined the scoring patterns in greater detail, they found that the trailing teams scored a disproportionate number of their points immediately after the halftime break. They came out strong at the start of the second half.

Possible Preaching Angles: Discipline; Endurance; Focus; Perseverance —Sometimes, the pressure of being a little behind is exactly what we need to propel us to greater discipline and higher devotion.

An enterprising soccer fan made heads turn when he found a way to circumvent the rules preventing him from enjoying his favorite team.

Ali Demirkaya, nicknamed "Yamuk Ali" (or "Crazy Ali") is well known in his area for his passionate fandom of the local football club, Denizlispor. So ardent was his fandom that Ali had been banned from the stadium for a year, due to a misdemeanor from a previous fan-related incident. So on the day of an important match against a rival team, Ali found a solution—he rented a crane, then lifted it high enough to see over the stadium wall.

"That match was very important for our team," he explained to local news source Yeni Asir. "I had to go to the police station to sign a paper to show that I am not watching the match in the stadium. Then I quickly went to rent the crane." Social media in the area was full of pictures of a jubilant Ali cheering from his perch.

Ultimately, police were summoned and Ali was forced to lower the crane. Nevertheless, he still ended the day on a high note. The stunt only cost him the equivalent of $86, he wasn't cited or fined by the authorities, and his team won 5-0.

Potential Preaching Angles: If it means something to you, you'll get creative to make sure you don't miss out. Sometimes God's blessing comes to those willing to go to extremes.

The Boys In The Boat tells the story of how nine underdogs, working-class boys from Washington, upset the elite rowers of the Ivy League and then went on to defeat Adolf Hider's rowers to win gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Their whole strategy depended on teamwork. The author of the story, David James Brown, describes the teamwork involved in rowing:

There is a thing that sometimes happens in rowing that is hard to achieve and hard to define. … It's called "swing." It only happens when all eight oarsmen are rowing in such perfect unison that no single action by any one is out of synch with those of all the others. … Sixteen arms must begin to pull, sixteen knees must begin to fold and unfold, eight bodies must begin co slide forward and backward, eight backs must bend and straighten all at once. Each minute action—each subtle turning of wrists—must be mirrored exactly by each oarsman, from one end of the boat to the other. Only then will the boat continue to run, unchecked, fluidly and gracefully between pulls of the oars. Only then will it feel as if the boat is a part of each of them, moving as if on its own. Only then does pain entirely give way to exultation. Rowing then becomes a kind of perfect language. Poetry, that's what a good swing feels like.

Possible Preaching Angles: John Ortberg adds: The crew's mentor, George Pocock, explained to them what he called "the spiritual value of rowing" as "the losing of self entirely to the cooperative effort of the crew as a whole." He explained the strange wonder of how-at the moment you are most sacrificing yourself for others—you are also most fully yourself, more fully alive than you'll ever be again. Pocock added, "When you're rowing well, … its nearing perfection. And when you near perfection, you're touching the Divine."

Robert Morgan provides this thought provoking illustration in Moments of Reflection: Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation:

When Harry Truman became president, he worried about losing touch with common, everyday Americans, so he would often go out and be among them. Those were in simpler days, when the president could take a walk like everyone else.

One evening, Truman decided to take a walk down to the Memorial Bridge on the Potomac River. When he grew curious about the mechanism that raised and lowered the bridge, he made his way across the catwalks and came upon the bridge tender, who was eating his evening supper out of a tin bucket. The man showed absolutely no surprise when he looked up and saw the best-known and most powerful man in the world. He just swallowed his food, wiped his mouth, smiled, and said, "You know, Mr. President, I was just thinking of you." According to Truman's biographer, David McCullough, it was a greeting that Truman adored and never forgot.

The Lord adores it when he finds us just thinking about him.