Exhortation

Tim Hogan is the founder and CEO SaferStreet Solutions, a development firm focusing on improving traffic safety and reducing pedestrian deaths. For years, he and his team were looking at ways to prevent the phenomenon known as distracted driving, which is statistically comparable to drunk driving as a culprit for traffic-related fatalities.

Inspired by the signs that offer real-time feedback to speeding drivers, Hogan and his team invented the SmartSign. The signs are designed to identify motorists who hold their phones while driving, and display a message warning them to stop: “PHONE DOWN.”

Matt Gregory is a reporter in Washington DC. When the SmartSign was implemented in his city, he was somewhat skeptical of the sign’s efficacy. Matt said, “So, I went for a drive with my phone in my hand. And sure enough, ‘Phone Down’!”

Hogan says the device works by using sensors to identify the unique combination of heat signatures that result from a human holding a phone. If the phone is cradled or resting elsewhere, the sign doesn’t light up.

Rick Birt from the DC Highway Safety Office says the goal is to introduce the signs to the public as a form of behavior intervention. “Last year nationally, 3,500 people died from distracted driving-related crashes. The goal of these signs is to provide instantaneous feedback to motorists so that they have that opportunity to make a better choice.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

God is faithful to remind us when we are veering off of the path given for us, but it’s up to each of us to respond in obedience.

Amid the increasing number of self-service check-out stations cropping up at grocery stores and other vendors, companies have devised a unique measure to deter potential shoplifters—mirrors.

Initially people assumed it was used to ensure shoppers “look good” before checking out, these reflective devices are actually there to make prospective pilferers feel guilty. This might sound ineffective on its face as robbers would presumably just steal with no one monitoring their actions.

However, mirrors are psychologically proven to make people feel guilty. According to a study in the journal “Letters on Behavioral Evolutionary Science,” people who are in a “self-aware” situation such as in front of a mirror are less likely to engage in “antinormative behavior” like stealing or cheating than those who are not.

The study noted that when participants were subjected to mirrors, their “private self-awareness was activated” and influenced “decision-making” despite the lack of social cues. “These results suggest that socially desirable behavior is influenced by mirrors.”

However, the study authors admit that the mechanism behind self-awareness’ effect on behavior is not well understood—perhaps the mirror makes people “reflect” on the crime before even committing it. Psychology Today postulated that mirrors “allowed people literally to watch over themselves” and therefore “made them more likely to behave in a more upright way.”

In general, experts argue that mirrors aren’t enough to prevent shoplifting at self-checkouts, which are notoriously susceptible to theft due to the lack of personnel. Scams have included weighing meat as fruit, and even scanning bootleg barcodes attached to people’s wrists before walking out without paying.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Bible; Scripture; Word of God - A person can look into a manmade mirror and soon forget what they have seen and go ahead with their sinful plans. However, when we look into the perfect law of God, we see a true and undistorted image of ourselves. God designed this so that our actions will be brought into alignment with his will and so that we will do what is pleasing to him. (Jam. 1:19-25, Heb. 4:12-13)

Cole Mushrush does two things when he wakes up each morning at the family ranch: make up a pot of coffee, then fire up his laptop to see if any cows have wandered astray. Not many do, because electronic collars have been hung around their necks that give them a jolt if they try to cross one of the invisible fence boundaries created on a computer. The digital fence follows the contours of a pasture, and the collars are designed to keep the cows hemmed in without having to go to the expense of building a real fence.

He said, “The collars have mostly deterred cows from wandering past the no-go zone—although the animals don’t always behave as desired after a shock that comes following warning beeps. Some of them close their eyes and run. We don’t need that.”

The cows undergo a four-day training regimen which included a beep followed by shock, and playing around with the boundaries. There were a few rule breakers, such as when a cow might see her friend on the other side of an invisible fence. Mushrush said, “There are social cliques within a herd. Sometimes a cow will walk through the shock to be with their friend.”

If you are wondering what the shock feels like, it is reported to hurt less than a bee sting.

Possible Preaching Angle:

We know we have freedom in Christ but sometimes we need to be reminded or warned that we are crossing a line which God has placed there for our good.

In the early days of World War II, the stress of the war began to take its toll on Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England. His wife Clementine grew alarmed. A member of Churchill’s inner circle told her that Churchill’s sarcastic and over-bearing manner was starting to discourage his inner circle of leaders. Clementine decided to speak the truth in love.

“My darling Winston,” she began in a letter, “I must confess that I have noticed a deterioration in your manner; and you are not so kind as you used to be.” She cautioned that in possessing the power to give orders and to sack anyone and everyone, “he was obliged to maintain a high standard of behavior—to combine kindness and if possible Olympic calm.” She reminded him that in the past he had been fond of quoting a French maximum, meaning, essentially, “one leads by calm.”

She continued: “I cannot bear that those who serve the country and yourself should not love you as well as admire and respect you.” But she warned, “You won’t get the best results by irascibility and rudeness. It will breed either dislike or a slave mentality.” She closed the letter with these words: “Please forgive your loving, devoted and watchful Clementine.”

Apparently, the letter got through to Winston. The next day people reported that he seemed remarkably at ease. He lay in bed, propped up by his bed rest as he gazed adoringly at his cat, Nelson, sprawled out peacefully at the foot of the bed.

In his book, The Reason for God, Tim Keller writes:

If you don’t trust the Bible enough to let it challenge and correct your thinking, how could you ever have a personal relationship with God? In any truly personal relationship, the other person has to be able to contradict you.

For example, if a wife is not allowed to contradict her husband, they won’t have an intimate relationship. Remember the (two) movies The Stepford Wives? The husbands of Stepford, Connecticut, decide to have their wives turned into robots who never cross the wills of their husbands. A Stepford wife was wonderfully compliant and beautiful, but no one would describe such a marriage as intimate or personal.

Now, what happens if you eliminate anything from the Bible that offends your sensibility and crosses your will? If you pick and choose what you want to believe and reject the rest, how will you ever have a God who can contradict you? You won’t! You’ll have a Stepford God! A God, essentially, of your own making, and not a God with whom you can have a relationship and genuine interaction.

Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle (as in a real friendship or marriage!) will you know that you have gotten hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination. So, an authoritative Bible is not the enemy of a personal relationship with God. It is the precondition for it.

Winston Churchill was 15 years old and a student at Harrow School when his mother, Jennie Churchill, wrote him the following letter from London on June 12, 1890.

Dearest Winston,

… I have much to say to you, I’m afraid not of a pleasant nature. You know darling how I hate to find fault with you, but I can’t help myself this time … Your report which I enclose is as you will see a very bad one. You work in such a fitful inharmonious way, that you are bound to come out last—look at your place in the form! Your father & I are both more disappointed than we can say, that you are not able to go up for your preliminary exam: I daresay you have 1000 excuses for not doing so—but there the fact remains …

Dearest Winston you make me very unhappy … My only consolation is that your conduct is good and you are an affectionate son—but your work is an insult to your intelligence. If you would only trace out a plan of action for yourself & carry it out & be determined to do so—I am sure you could accomplish anything you wished. It is that thoughtlessness of yours which is your greatest enemy …

I will say no more now—but Winston you are old enough to see how serious this is to you—& how the next year or two & the use you make of them, will affect your whole life—stop & think it out for yourself & take a good pull before it is too late. You know dearest boy that I will always help you all I can.

Your loving but distressed

Mother

Anyone who's been through it knows that middle school can be tough. At Harriman Middle School in Tennessee, a group of students took it upon themselves to make sure that everyone feels loved and included.

They started leaving positive notes, written in brightly-colored highlighter, around school hallways and in bathrooms. The notes are simple, but powerful. "If you realize it or not, someone loves you," one note read. A "Never give up," note was taped to a mirror. Another said, "Stay strong." So far the group of students has left 100 encouraging notes with more to come.

Nicole True is an 8th grade student at Harriman, is a member of the group that came up with the idea to leave the notes. “I think it makes all the difference in the world,” True said. “Considering the fact that all of us have had someone come up to us and say 'that really affected us in a major way.’ It’s a small act that just makes everyone's day a little bit happier.”

Potential Preaching Angles:

Encouragement; Help; Loving Others – A Bible study, fellowship group, or local church could follow this example and mail handwritten notes, send text messages, or use social media to spread words of encouragement among its members.

If you've ever tried to find the motivation to start exercising more (around the New Year, perhaps), you have likely been encouraged to find a "workout buddy" who can help provide you with encouragement and accountability to stick to the goal. However, according to a new study, it is not encouragement but competition that seems to be the best motivator.

The researchers in charge of the study observed over 800 students assigned to different exercise groups across a wide variety of activities: yoga, cycling, running, weight training, etc. Groups were structured differently, so that some would provide a sense of friendly camaraderie while others would be more intensely competitive. They then offered control groups where there was little to no structured encouragement or competition.

The results did not end up contradicting the idea that a friendly companion provides support for your workout regimen, but it did reveal that the motivation is significantly higher when competition enters the picture. Encouragement may feel good, but pride is powerful. "As people were influenced by their neighbors to exercise more, it created a social ratchet," said the author of the study, Damon Centola, "where everyone increased everyone else's activity levels." So if you want to work out more, a little friendly competition might be a good place to start.

Potential Preaching Angles: The biblical phrase "iron sharpens iron" is often thought of as a metaphor for believers encouraging one another. But that might be selling the phrase short. Some healthy competition - measuring oneself against someone and striving to match their spiritual disciplines/practices - can be just as productive in one's spiritual life, if not more.

On July 8, 1838, the seventh president of the United States, General Andrew Jackson, informed his minister, the Reverend Dr. John Edgar, that he wanted to become a member of the Presbyterian Church and receive Communion. Dr. Edgar asked the president about his conversion and convictions, and gave his approving nod with each satisfactory answer. But Dr. Edgar felt the need to probe the president's soul more deeply. "General, there is one more question which it is my duty to ask you: Can you forgive all your enemies?"

The question stunned General Jackson. He stared at his minister for a moment while he gathered his thoughts. He then broke the silence: "My political enemies, I can freely forgive," Jackson confessed. "But as for those who abused me when I was serving my country in the field, and those who attacked me for serving my country—that is a different case."

This was an honest answer, but Dr. Edgar wasn't satisfied. Christians must forgive all, Edgar insisted to America's seventh president. President Jackson wasn't anticipating that he would be probed and questioned in this way. And yet when the time came for him to respond, he knew he had to embrace the claim of the gospel on his life. One of Jackson's biographers gives us his response:

There was a "considerable pause." Then Jackson spoke again. Upon reflection, he said he thought he could forgive all who had injured him, even those who reviled him for his services to his country on the battlefield. He was at long last prepared to grant amnesty to all the scoundrels and poltroons who had ever crossed his path.

On July 15, 1838, General Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, was admitted into the Presbyterian Church. He was seventy years old when his battle-weathered soul and tired body knelt to receive Communion for the first time. And as he did, his biographer tells us, "tears of penitence and joy trickled down his careworn cheeks." Meekness had triumphed.

After Reader's Digest nominated the actor Tom Hanks as "the most trusted man in the world" (in 2013), on the Late Show David Letterman asked Hanks what he's done to become so trustworthy. Hanks explained:

What do I do exactly to earn this trust? I'm honest because I tell people I'm lying to them. Because I'm in show business … somebody will send me a project and there is no way in [heck] I'm going to do it because it stinks and it's lousy and I don't want to do it. But I will say, "Doug, I'm lying to you right now, but I love this thing so much, I want to do it, but I can't because I have to publicize a movie in Japan. By the way Doug, I'm lying to you. The things I just said are lies, but don't you feel better?"

But then when I'm supposed to be in Japan to promote my new movie I turn up in the crowd at a [hockey] game and it kind of blows it. But then I tell him, "But, dude, I opened the conversation by saying, 'I'm lying to you.'"

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Speaking the Truth in Love—shows the need to lovingly confront other people with the truth; (2) God's Word; God's Truth—this quote can also illustrate that God doesn't lie to us in order to make us feel good; he speaks the truth that sets us free.

The website Business Insider ran an article titled "7 Brutally Honest Job Rejection Letters." Here are two examples of how not to confront someone.

Sub Pop, an independent record label in Seattle, sent the following rejection letter:

Dear Loser, Thank you for sending your demo materials to Sun Pop for consideration. Presently, your demo package is one of a massive quantity of material we receive everyday at Sub Pop World Headquarters. [Your material] is on its way through the great lower intestines that is the talent acquisitions process. We appreciate your interest and wish the best in your pursuit. Kind regards. P.S. This letter is known as a "rejection letter."

New Delta Review, a literary magazine in Baton Rouge, sent the following rejection letter:

Thank you for submitting. Unfortunately, the work you sent is quite terrible. Please forgive the form rejection, but it would take too much of my time to tell you exactly how terrible it was. So again, sorry for the form letter.

In June of 1992, Jim Davidson and Mike Price climbed Mt. Ranier. On the way down from the summit, the two climbers fell 80 feet through a snow bridge into a glacial crevasse, a pitch-black, ice-walled crack in the massive glaciers that cover Mt. Ranier. Mike Price died.

In his book The Ledge, Jim Davidson tells the story of his miraculous survival and courageous climb out of the crevasse. Throughout the book, Jim reflects back to his childhood and young adult years, describing his relationship with his father.

As early as Jim can remember, his father had shown what some considered an almost reckless confidence in his son. Jim worked for his father painting high, steep-pitched roofs and electrical towers as early as age 12. The work terrified his mother, but Jim's father kept communicating his belief that Jim could accomplish great things if he pressed through adversity and kept going.

As Jim stood, bloodied and bruised, on the two-foot wide snow ledge next to the body of his climbing partner, he heard the voice of his father. The years of inspiration that Jim's father had invested in him flooded back into his mind and washed over him with encouragement.

With minimal gear and no experience in ice climbing at that level, Jim spent the next five hours climbing out, battling fatigue and the crumbling ice and snow that threatened to bury him. Throughout his ordeal, Jim kept recalling the words of his father. Five grueling hours later, thanks to his father's words, Jim climbed out of the crevasse to safety.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Fathers are called to speak words of life that challenge and inspire their sons and daughters; (2)The Holy Spirit encourages us by reminding us of the words of Christ; (3) Scripture—when we're tempted to give up, the promises of the Bible give us hope to persevere.

In 1850, Abraham Lincoln's step-brother, John D. Johnston, wrote to him and asked, yet again, for a loan so he could settle some debts. On previous occasions Lincoln simply gave Johnston the money. But this time Lincoln responded with a "tough love" letter that included a helpful proposal.

Dear Johnston:

Your request for eighty dollars I do not think it best to comply with now. At the various times when I have helped you a little you have said to me, "We can get along very well now"; but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now, this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. What that defect is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an idler. I doubt whether, since I saw you, you have done a good whole day's work in any one day…. This habit of uselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty; it is vastly important to you, and still more so to your children, that you should break the habit ….

You are now in need of some money; and what I propose is, that you shall go to work, "tooth and nail," for somebody who will give you money for it …. and, to secure you a fair reward for your labor, I now promise you, that for every dollar you will, between this and the first of May, get for your own labor … I will then give you one other dollar …. Now, if you will do this, you will be soon out of debt, and, what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But, if I should now clear you out of debt, next year you would be just as deep in as ever.

Affectionately your brother,

A. Lincoln

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Confrontation/Rebuke—Lincoln's letter provides a good example of "tough love"—the love that is willing to "speak the truth in love" so people can change and grow. (2) Money/Debt—This letter also provides a biblical perspective on avoiding debt by working hard and being responsible with money.

Sometimes true friends don't just affirm and comfort us; they also "raise our game." That's what happened to Richard Dahlstrom when he was rock climbing with his friend Kevin. Kevin, a more experienced climber, was climbing as the belayer, or the one who's supposed to protect Dahlstrom from plummeting to the ground. On this particular climb, Dahlstrom was exhausted and ready to quit the climb, so he politely asked Kevin to help him get back to the ground. But Kevin refused to grant his friend's request. Here's how Dahlstrom described the scene:

"Falling," I shout, and Kevin puts a brake on the rope; after a few feet I come to stop. I'm hanging, spinning around while new blood delivers recovery energy to my fingers and my spent arm. "I'm done, man. Lower!" This the part where the belayer is supposed to lower you to the ground and congratulate you on a good try.

Instead, Kevin says, "I'm not lowering ya, man. You can climb that."

"Funny," I say, acknowledging his attempt at humor. "Lower, please."

"Not funny," he says, laughing. "You. Can. Climb. That." He speaks in staccato, punctuating each word to make sure I hear him. I continue to spin, hanging from the rope, about forty-five feet in the air. "Try it again."

Who is this person, telling me what I can and can't do? Friends don't let friends dangle in midair, do they? What did I ever like about him? "No, really. I'm finished."

"No, really. You can climb this." He's not going to let me quit. I need new friends.

I reconnect with the rock, and he tightens the rope as I try again, and fall again. Once more I ask to be lowered. Once more he refuses. Once more I try, and this last time, for reasons still unknown to me, I succeed and finish the climb, exhilarated by the triumph ….

Kevin saw something in me I didn't and brought it out; he raised my game, so to speak. Good friends do that; so do good coaches. But more than friends or coaches, God does that. God raises our game and brings things out in us that we didn't know were there.

Trying to grow spiritually without hearing the truth about yourself from somebody else is like trying to do brain surgery on yourself without a mirror.

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell tells the strange story of Christopher Langan, a genius with a staggering IQ of 195. (For some perspective, Einstein's IQ was 150). During high school, Langan could ace any foreign language test by skimming the textbook 2-3 minutes before the exam. He got a perfect score on his SAT, even though at one point he fell asleep. But Langan failed to use his exceptional gifts and ended up working on a horse farm in rural Missouri.

According to Gladwell, Langan never had a community to help him capitalize on his gifts.

Gladwell summarizes the story of Langan in one sentence: "[Langan] had to make his way alone, and no one—not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses—ever makes it alone."