Faith & Works

Extravagantly powerful and noisy engines helped make Ferrari the ultimate sports car brand. Now the company wants to persuade the superrich to buy a model with no engine at all.

The Italian carmaker this week started lifting the hood on its first fully electric vehicle, a yearlong project that has cost the brand hundreds of millions of dollars and promises to set a benchmark for how battery-powered sports cars should look, sound and drive.

…EVs pose a particular challenge for luxury sports-car brand, which say roar and rumble are central to their identities and appeal. Ferrari, perhaps more than any other automaker, has built its brand on internal combustion engines.

Ferrari said its EV wouldn’t mimic engine sounds, as some competitors have. Instead, it will pick up the sound of what it calls the “electric engine” and amplify it into the cabin to give the driver feedback when required.”

Maybe Ferrari is onto something but for many who adore their cars a Ferrari without a roar seems like a love sung played on a kazoo or a passionate love that goes unspoken, or a marriage without warmth and fire, or a honeymoon without a dessert, or a love poem written by autocorrect, or finally a romantic dinner on paper plates. It may all be there but it’s missing something essential.

A survey by Pew Research Center shows that American Protestants believe that:

46% Faith in God alone is needed to get into heaven

52% Both good deeds and faith in God are needed to get into heaven

46% The Bible provides all the religious guidance that Christians need

52% In addition to the Bible, Christians need guidance from church teachings and traditions

In a survey, two in three Americans told LifeWay Research, “Yes, I am a sinner.” But on what to do about it, self-confessed sinners were split.

All Americans:

34% I work on being less of a sinner

28% I depend on Jesus Christ to overcome sin

5% I am fine with being a sinner

Men:

38% I work on being less of a sinner

22% I depend on Jesus Christ to overcome sin

6% I am fine with being a sinner

Women:

33% I depend on Jesus Christ to overcome sin

30% I work on being less of a sinner

4% I am fine with being a sinner

Protestants:

49% I depend on Jesus Christ to overcome sin

31% I work on being less of a sinner

3% I am fine with being a sinner

Catholics

48% I work on being less of a sinner

19% I depend on Jesus Christ to overcome sin

4% I am fine with being a sinner

American essayist, historian, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau wrote: "It is not enough to be industrious. So are the ants." The British science magazine New Scientist put out an issue on the psychology and future of work. One of the articles, "I Work Therefore I Am," cited Brent Rosso, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Management at Montana State University. He penned six unique attributes that help people find meaning in their jobs. Rosso mined hundreds of academic surveys to come up with the list. He believes almost any job can have at least one of the attributes. (Note: attributes copied verbatim because of their brevity)

Authenticity Going to work makes you feel you are accessing your "true self"—maybe that you are following a calling or can be yourself.

Agency You are able to make significant decisions and feel as if you "make a difference." This taps into our desire to believe that we have free will.

Self-Worth Your job makes you feel valuable; you are able to see milestones of achievement, no matter how small.

Purpose You see your work as moving you closer to a strongly held goal. The downside is that you are more likely to sacrifice pay and personal time too.

Belonging It's not what you do, it's who you do it with. You belong to a special group of colleagues, even if your job seems mundane or poorly rewarded.

Transcendence Your job is about sacrifice for a greater cause. Your meaning comes from following this, or perhaps a truly inspirational boss.

Possible Preaching Angles: This would make a fascinating illustration for a sermon on faith and work. It poses the following questions: What drives or motivates you as a worker? What should drive you as a follower of Christ?

"God met me where I was at—baggy jeans and earrings." With those words, the celebrated hip-hop artist Lecrae Moore begins his story. Growing up without a father, he experienced a childhood of abuse and neglect. He filled his life with drugs, theft, alcohol, sex, and gang activity. He was so wild that his friends nicknamed him "Crazy Crae." What it took to bring him to Christianity was someone who was not afraid of that subculture—who knew that the real problem for Lecrae was not his culture but his sin and brokenness. A white man named Joe loved the black teenager enough to enter into his culture and speak his language.

Today Lecrae is the president and co-founder of Reach Records, and is the winner of several Dove Awards and a Grammy Award. His album Anomaly was the first album ever to top both the Gospel Albums and the Billboard 200 chart.

Lecrae said a key turning point in his life was when he grasped what comes after conversion—when he understood that "Christianity is not just religious truth, it is Total Truth." In other words, the real transformation came when he realized that Christians are called to roll up their sleeves and work out the implications of a biblical worldview for justice and politics, for science and scholarship, for art and music—and all the rest of life. "We've limited Christianity to salvation and sanctification," he said. But "Christianity is the truth about everything. If you say you have a Christian worldview, that means you see the world through that lens—not just how people get saved and what to stay away from."

"I try to hold on to the things I believe to be good and true. Good things happen to good people. Karma is real. There is a larger, better plan for us all if we stay positive, keep pushing, and get out of our own way."

—Rob Lowe, Love Life

In November 2014, the Food and Drug Administration released its rule for calorie counts on chain restaurants. The final rule is pretty tough: it even requires movie theaters, pizza chains, and grocery stores to include calorie counts on their products. The premise of calorie counts on food items is obvious: If a person sees that the hamburger has 800 calories and the chicken only has 500, maybe that person will choose the chicken.

Most Americans like this idea. Nearly 75 percent of Americans support menu labeling. After New York required labels in 2008, 84 percent of residents said they found the labels helpful, and 93 percent of people in a public health clinic sample saw menu labeling as important. A majority of Americans also said they would choose lower-calorie food items if they had more information at their disposal.

Unfortunately, there's one big problem with food labeling: it doesn't seem to change what we eat. Researchers reviewed 31 studies published between January 2007 and July 2013 that explored how calorie labeling influenced consumer choices at cafes and restaurants. One of the researchers concluded the results of this review: "The best designed studies show that calorie labels do not have the desired effect in reducing total calories ordered at the population level."

A 2014 study led by Dr. Kurt Gray from UNC Chapel Hill analyzed the Save Darfur Facebook page. More than 1.17 million members had indicated they were concerned and wanted to offer support in some way to the horrific events in Darfur. The team only had the resources to examine the first 100,000 members. To their surprise, they discovered that 99.8 percent of those who liked the page had never donated to the cause and 72 percent had not recruited anyone in their social media circles.

Dr. Gray commented on the research: "They raised almost nothing compared with what a similar campaign would have raised offline. The reason is that you got to look great without having to pay." Gray compares this to eating junk food: "It's the equivalent of refined foods. It's engineered to make us like it, but it's ultimately empty." Gray concluded:

Despite the chorus of voices touting the transformative … potential of social media, when it came to recruiting for—and donating to—the Save Darfur Cause, the most popular social network site in the world appears to have hardly mattered … Although it enabled more than 1 million individuals to register their discontent with the situation in Darfur, it largely failed to transform these initial acts … into a deep and sustained commitment to the work.

An article in The Wall Street Journal asks, "Why work out when you can just buy the clothes and look like you did?" The article explores a growing trend in the athletic apparel market—people are buying sports clothing without actually practicing the sport. The article notes "the U.S. athletic apparel market will increase driven in large part by consumers snapping up stretchy tees and leggings that will never see the fluorescent lights of a gym." For instance, sales of yoga apparel increased by 45 percent but yoga participation grew by less than five percent.

The trend isn't limited to yoga. Outdoor and camping retailers have debuted new lines of hiking boots and flannel shirts for people who probably have no intention of actually hiking and camping. Retailers are also rolling out jogging pants and preppy, $90 men's running shorts for men who may never jog.

The article quoted one buyer of athletic apparel who likes to wear yoga pants around town but who seldom has time to workout. She said, "When you put on your workout apparel, you think, 'Huh, maybe I should think about working out today.' "

Every year revelers from around the world head to Pamplona, Spain to take part in the running of the bulls glorified by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. The festival, a heady nine-day mix of partying and adrenaline-chasing, draws hundreds of thousands of people from around the world to Pamplona, a city of around 300,000. Fifteen people have been killed in the bull-runs since records began in 1911. The most recent death occurred five years ago when a Spanish man was gored.

Bill Hillman, a Chicago-based journalist, is an expert on the event. He even co-authored a book subtitled "How to survive the bulls of Pamplona." But on July 3, 2014, just knowing about bull running, even knowing enough to write an instruction manual on bull running, wasn't enough. A 1,320 pound fighting bull named Brevito lagged behind the pack just before entering the city's bull ring at the end of a rain-slicked run in the annual festival. At the opportune time, Brevito gored Hillman in the right thigh and a 35-year-old Spanish man in the chest. Both men recovered, but the co-author of Hillman's book 's told The New York Times, "We will probably need to update the book."

Possible Preaching Angles: Leadership; Preaching; Teaching—a great example of practicing what you preach or living what you teach.

Imagine a family of four living in a modest home. It's a good home, and it meets their needs, but it's also far from perfect. The pipes are aging. The floors are scratched up. The walls have marks on them. The kitchen is dated. One day "Papa" or grandpa visits and tells them, "I am saving money to do a major renovation of your house. In 10 years I'll redo everything for you—new floors, appliances, wiring, roof, siding, and landscaping. Everything will be redone."

That night they celebrated and talked about their dream house. But after their beloved Papa left, they faced a dilemma: How do they live until the new house is ready? With some sarcasm, the oldest son says, "Who cares how we live? It's all going to get redone, so I say we trash this place and live it up." The daughter says, "We can just live here, but let's spend all of our time and energy dreaming about the house to come." The father says, "Well, I'm not fixing anything else in this house. If it breaks, it will stay broken. I'm not patching holes, I'm not sanding floors, and I'm not fixing doors. As long as the roof does not collapse, I am not touching it."

The family's mom listened quietly before saying, "Here's the thing: It will be wonderful to get a brand new home, but now, even before it comes, we have to live in this home like we are going to live in the brand new one. If we trash this house, we will just learn how to trash houses. We should dream and plan for the new house, but if we only think about the new home, we will miss the goodness that is still here. And if we never fix anything, we'll need to live with more things broken than are necessary. Seeing broken things will only bring sadness." She concluded, "So from now on you need to imagine like we are living in the new house now and live in this house just like we will in our new one."

Possible Preaching Angles: The preacher who shared this illustration followed it up with this quote from N.T. Wright: "What counts is formation, in the present time, of a character that properly anticipates the promised future state … to share in the new world, the new creation that has already begun with Christ."

One night before Christmas, Clay and Velma Lykins of Jefferson County, Kentucky, stepped onto their porch to turn off the Christmas lights and saw a large object wrapped in plastic, sitting at the end of their driveway. Under the plastic was the wicker chair that had been stolen from their front porch 18 years earlier, along with a note:

To whom it may concern: Approximately 13 to 17 years ago my husband stole this wicker rocking chair from the porch of this house. I am ashamed of his behavior and am returning this stolen item. I have since been divorced from my husband and have since been "born again." My life has completely changed and I want to undo any wrongdoing to the best of my ability. I know this chair is not in the same condition as when it was stolen and I apologize. I now live in another state, Tennessee, and am rarely in this vicinity. I realize the cowardly fashion in which I am returning this, but the reason is obvious. I will not bother you again. Please forgive us. Sincerely.

The rocker was placed in the bedroom along with the letter where it became a treasured keepsake.

Award-winning investigative journalist Petra Reski is one of the world's leading experts on the Italian mafia. Her book, The Honored Society: A Portrait of Italy's Most Powerful Mafia, delves into the personal lives and the faith of its members and supporters. "Faith' in God and living like a Mafioso are fairly common in the strange world of Italian mobsters.

For example, Sicilian Mafioso Marcello Fava, who later left his mafia clan, told an Italian journalist: "Before I had to kill someone, I would cross myself. I would say: 'Dear God, stand by me! Make sure nothing happens!' But I wasn't the only one who crossed himself beforehand and prayed to God. We all did."

When mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano was arrested, the police found him with five Bibles, with hundreds of his own margin comments and passages underlined. In his home were 91 sacred statues, 73 of them Christ figures. Each one of them bore the inscription: Jesus, I put my trust in you. Mafia boss Michele Greco has four books in his prison cell: two liturgical books, the gospels, and a book entitled Pray, Pray. During his trial, when asked for an explanation to his many murders, he merely replied: "I have an invaluable gift—inner peace."

Bryan Chapell tells a story about learning to use a crosscut saw with his father. As Bryan and his father were sawing through a log that had a rotten core, a piece of wood sheared off that looked just like a horse's head. So Bryan took it home and then later on gave it to his dad as a present. Chapell continues:

I attached a length of two-by-four board to that log head, attached a rope tail, and stuck on some sticks to act as legs. Then I halfway hammered in a dozen or so nails down the two-by-four body of that "horse," wrapped the whole thing in butcher block paper, put a bow on it, and presented it to my father. When he took off the wrapping, he smiled and said, "Thank you, it's wonderful … what is it?"

"It's a tie rack, Dad," I said. "See, you can put your ties on those nails going clown the side of the horse's body." My father smiled again and thanked me. Then he leaned the horse against his closet wall (because the stick legs could not keep it standing upright), and for years he used it as a tie rack.

Now, when I first gave my father that rotten-log-horse-head tie rack, I really thought it was "good." In my childish mind this creation was a work of art ready for the Metropolitan Museum. But as I matured, I realized that my work was not nearly as good as I had once thought. In fact, I understood ultimately that my father had received and used my gift not because of its goodness but out of his goodness. In a similar way our heavenly Father receives our gifts not so much because they deserve his love, but because he is love.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Christmas—This is a great way to illustrate the idea that Christmas is about God's gift to us, not our "gift" (i.e. religious efforts, performance, good deeds) to God; (2) God, grace of—The gospel is about trusting in God's gift to us in and through Christ, not offering our imperfect gifts to God.

John Marks, a producer for television's 60 Minutes, went on a two-year quest to investigate evangelicals, the group he had grown up among and later rejected. He wrote a book about the quest called Reasons to Believe: One Man's Journey Among the Evangelicals and the Faith He Left Behind. The church's response to Hurricane Katrina turned the corner for him and became a key reason to believe. One Baptist church in Baton Rouge fed 16,000 people a day for weeks; another housed 700 homeless evacuees. Years after the hurricane, and long after federal assistance had dried up, a network of churches in surrounding states was still sending regular teams to help rebuild houses. Most impressively to Marks, all these church efforts crossed racial lines and barriers in the Deep South. As one worker told him, "We had whites, blacks, Hispanics, Vietnamese, good old Cajun … . We just tried to say, hey, let's help people. This is our state. We'll let everybody else sort out that other stuff. We've got to cook some rice."

Marks concludes:

I would argue that this was a watershed moment in the history of American Christianity … nothing spoke more eloquently to believers, and to nonbelievers who were paying attention, than the success of a population of believing volunteers measured against the massive and near-total collapse of secular government efforts. The storm laid bare an unmistakable truth. More and more Christians have decided that the only way to reconquer America is through service. The faith no longer travels by the word. It moves by the deed.

According to a survey by the American Institute of Architects, 64 percent of architecture firms are reporting increased interest in outdoor living spaces: places for adults to relax and for kids to play. People say they want "a luxurious outdoor world" right in their backyard so they can escape their everyday lives, hang out as a family, and spend time outside while staying at home.

At least that's what people say they want. But there's just one problem: Evidence shows that for all of their good intentions, most families don't actually spend time in their backyard retreats. A book titled Life at Home in the Twenty-first Century revealed the results of an in-depth study of middle-class Los Angeles families. Researchers from UCLA recorded hours of footage while carefully documenting how families actually spent their time.

According to their research, children averaged fewer than 40 minutes per week in their yards. Adults logged less than 15 minutes per week. All of these families benefitted from sunny Southern California weather. They had nice porch furniture, trampolines, even pools. They just didn't use them. But the researchers also noted a profound disconnect between belief and action: Most families told the researchers that they were using their backyards often, but the researchers' observations proved otherwise.

One of the researchers noted, "Rather than use their outdoor retreats, people would retreat by turning on a [TV, computer, or video game] screen. People don't like this image of their lives. So they don't acknowledge it." Instead, families "perpetuate the illusion" of spending time outside because that's clearly the ideal.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Faith and Action/Works—What we say we believe must mesh with how we actually behave. As James says, "Faith without works is dead." (2) Families and Relationships—Families say they'd like more time together, but they often don't follow-through and achieve that goal.

Comedian Louis C.K. says the following about faith without works:

I have a lot of beliefs .… And I live by none of them. That's just the way I am. They're just my beliefs. I just like believing them—I like that part. They're my little "believies." They make me feel good about who I am. But if they get in the way of a thing I want, I [sure as heck just do what I want to do].

Sarah Ferguson is an English ex-royal. Commonly called "Fergie" and well known to readers of tabloids, the red-haired former Duchess of York was married to Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth, from 1986 till their divorce in 1996.

Sarah found her place in the tabloids through missteps and scandals. Her Wikipedia biography says,

By 1991, the marriage was in trouble, and the couple had drifted apart. While her husband was away on naval or royal duties, the Duchess was frequently seen in the company of other men …. Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York finally announced their separation in 1992 ….

The Duchess endured widespread public ridicule contributing to her further estrangement from the British Royal Family. After four years of official separation, the Duke and Duchess announced the mutual decision to divorce in 1996.

A 2011 article about Sarah in The Week reported on her more recent troubles. She was caught trying to sell access to her former husband for $40,000. She nearly went bankrupt. And she received a painful royal snub: she was not among the 1,900 people invited to the 2011 royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Sarah did watch the wedding, however, and she says,

With Catherine going up the aisle, you know what went through my head? I feel like I've handed her the baton and said, "Well done. And you'll do it right." I didn't do it right, and now I am going to go get Sarah right."

In that pursuit, we can all identify with Sarah Ferguson. Sooner or later, we come to the point where we realize we've botched things up royally, and we need to fix not just a situation—we need to fix ourselves. And that raises one of the most important questions you'll ever try to answer: What do you do when you decide you're going to go get yourself right? How do you go about that? The world and our own sense of morality tells us one thing; the gospel tells us quite another.