Patience

They set off to spend eight days at the space station. The trip lasted nine months. On March 18, 2025, two NASA astronauts who had been in orbit since June, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, splashed down in calm, azure waters off the coast of the Florida Panhandle, concluding a saga that had captivated the country since last summer.

Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore blasted off in June of 2024 for the International Space Station on their test flight of Starliner. This was a Boeing spacecraft that was to provide NASA with another option, outside of SpaceX, to carry astronauts to and from orbit. But the Starliner experienced problems with its propulsion system, prompting NASA to send it back to Earth with no crew aboard.

They had a grateful, patient attitude about the whole experience. “It’s work. It’s fun. It’s been trying at times, no doubt,” Mr. Wilmore said in an interview. “But ‘stranded’? No. ‘Stuck’? No. ‘Abandoned’? No.” Ms. Williams added, “You get a little bit more time to enjoy the view out the window.”

By the end of their journey, Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore had traveled nearly 121,347,500 miles, having orbited the earth 4,576 times. Mr. Wilmore has spent a total of 31 hours conducting spacewalks during his career and Ms. Williams 62 hours, a record for a woman astronaut.

Possible Preaching Angles:

Life is like this… unpredictable, with lots of twists and turns and a need for patience. But we can also see the presence of Jesus in never stranding or abandoning us.

Researcher Arthur C. Books told the following story about how we all can benefit from self-control and waiting.

My father-in-law, with whom I was very close, spent most of his life on the same working-class street in Barcelona’s El Clot neighborhood. Born in 1929, he saw Spain’s bloody civil war taking place literally in front of his house. His family experienced a lot of suffering. Some died; others spent years in jail or were forced into exile. He himself spent a year in a refugee camp, an experience that affected him for the rest of his life. Every time he wanted to make a point about society or culture, he always started with: “Well, during the civil war …”

One evening, a few months before he died, he read in his local paper an article of mine about unhappiness. “You have a lot of complicated theories,” he told me, “But the real reason people are unhappy is very simple.” I asked him to elaborate. “They don’t enjoy their dinner,” he responded. I asked him what he meant. “Well, during the civil war, we were always hungry,” he said. “But one day a year—Christmas—we got to eat whatever we wanted, and we were so happy. Today, people snack all day long, are never hungry, don’t enjoy their dinners, and aren’t happy—even on Christmas.”

He was not wrong in his main contention: Happiness rises, paradoxically, when you do not get whatever you want, whenever you want it. Rather, well-being requires that you discipline your will and defer your gratifications. Understanding this and taking action to change your habits can make you a much happier person.

Every 13- or 17-years a remarkable event of nature happens - cicadas emerge from more than a decade underground. How do they keep track of time? This is one of the “seven biological wonders of the world,” according to John Cooley, a biologist at the University of Connecticut.

“Seventeen [years] is just an inordinately long time to keep track of anything,” adds John Lill, an insect ecologist at George Washington University. “I can’t keep track of five years let alone 17, myself—so how an insect does it is pretty remarkable.”

During their long stint underground, the insects sip at xylem sap, the nutrient-poor but water-rich liquid that moves from a tree’s root tips up to its canopy. Each year as a tree buds and blossoms, its xylem is briefly richer in amino acids, leading one team of researchers to call it “spring elixir.” Cicadas appear to count each flush of spring elixir.

Another researcher said, “We know that’s what they count. Where they’re putting their little chalk marks on the wall, we don’t know. We really don’t understand how they’re keeping track of it.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

God’s timetable is even more mysterious. James tells us to “be patient until the coming of the Lord” (Jam. 5:7) Peter adds, “A day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises” (2 Pet 3:8-9). God’s timetable is higher than ours so we must trust in Him and his perfect timing.

Clinical psychologist Jenny Taitz writes, “I see so many clients who don’t have the ability to wait, and it is no wonder. In a world where it is possible to get the answer to any question instantly with Google and to order coffee for immediate pickup on an app, why should any of us have to deal with delays and unknowns?”

Unfortunately, for many of us, the challenge is that being patient now feels harder than ever before. A 2023 study involving more than 28,000 adults and adolescents found that the average person’s mood got steadily worse every minute they sat doing nothing. Waiting patiently is so difficult that we often react by doing things that actually make us more impatient, like constantly checking our phones for updates or seeking reassurance from everyone we know.

Michael Dugas, another psychologist in the same article notes, “Technology creates the illusion that certainty is possible, which leads to trying to attain certainty in all situations, contributing to worry and anxiety.” When a loved one doesn’t pick up the phone, we track their location instead of waiting for them to call back. When an email doesn’t get a prompt response, we can find out precisely when it was opened. Such behavior only adds to our worry and anxiety.

It took Noah Lyles 9.79 seconds to run 100 meters on August 4, 2024. It took 29.47 seconds for him to find out that he actually won. Once the closest, tensest men’s 100-meter final in modern Olympic history was over, the real drama was only beginning.

The race was so tight that the man who crossed the line first suspected that he’d finished second. Lyles put a hand on the shoulder of Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson to congratulate him. Thompson stared at the Stade de France scoreboard, willing the photo finish to go his way. “Come on, man!” he shouted.

Some 70,000 spectators held their breath. In the time it took to crown the winner, Lyles and Thompson could have run 100 meters three more times. That was when one of the most advanced scoring systems in any sport on the planet got to work.

To determine that Lyles had won by a margin of five thousandths of a second, it took three judges, three high-speed cameras—and a willingness to make the fastest men alive stand around and wait.

During those agonizing moments, the runners’ fates were in the hands of a team from Omega Timing, which has been responsible for tracking every fraction of a second at the Olympics for nearly a century.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Rapture; Second Coming of Christ – This incredibly small amount of time illustrates that important events can happen very quickly, such as: “a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52); 2) Perseverance - Lyles' journey to Olympic gold demonstrates the importance of perseverance in the face of challenges. This reflects the biblical teaching to "run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Heb. 12:1); 3) Humility - Lyles initially thought he had lost and congratulated Thompson, showing humility in what he believed was defeat (Phil. 2:3-5); 4) Patience - The 29.47-second wait for the results exemplifies the need for patience, echoing the biblical wisdom that "patience is better than pride" (Eccl. 7:8, Jam. 5:7-11); 5) Unity - The camaraderie between Lyles and Thompson, even in the midst of intense competition, reflects the biblical principle of loving one's neighbor (Mark 12:31).

If you find yourself being more impatient than ever before when interacting with people in customer service roles—or if you’ve noticed other people having a shorter fuse and snapping more quickly—you’re not alone. Lines can be a source of anger, frustration, and arguments. Twenty-seven percent of consumers get annoyed by fellow shoppers when in line and 19% of shoppers have even had an argument with a partner or friend in a line.

The vast majority of consumers associate waiting in line with negative emotions. Nearly 67% of the consumers surveyed report feeling impatient, bored, annoyed, frustrated, or disrespected when they have to wait.

Notably, impatience skyrocketed this year (2024)—increasing by 176%. This suggests that consumers are shifting from boredom and annoyance towards impatience. This finding is unsurprising given our current social climate. Technology is increasing expectations for instant gratification while high levels of anxiety are shortening fuses. Surveys have shown that 25% would only wait a maximum of two minutes. Fifty-nine percent would wait no longer than four minutes. Seventy-three percent would abandon their purchase if they had to queue for more than five minutes.

Furthermore, the widespread transition to remote work during the pandemic resulted in reduced face-to-face interaction. And with a decrease in this time spent with our fellow humans, it has likely been more difficult to develop empathy and patience. Too much screen time may have caused “keyboard courage” to bleed into our day-to-day conversations, leaving us more abrupt and even rude in our communications.

Another cause of heightened emotions is the overall challenges people in the world are facing, including polarization, war, the underlying stress of inflation, supply chain issues, or looming economic uncertainty.

All of these factors are pushing people to their limits and resulting in an increase in burnout, frustration, and impatience in their interactions with others.

The U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on a small number of cases, and most of the cases have national implications—except in the strange case of Stuart Harrow.

The Department of Defense employee is before the Court to find out whether a missed email spells an end to his 11-year quest to get $3,000 of pay (and interest) he says was wrongly withheld during 2013 budget cuts that briefly forced him out of work.

His case would feel right at home in small-claims court. But in March of 2024, the nine justices of the highest court in the land heard oral arguments about whether the government should let him continue his fight for six days of back pay.

With the nine justices lined up on the bench, Justice Neil Gorsuch wondered how the issue had come to this. “Here we are in the Supreme Court of the United States over a $3,000 claim,” said Gorsuch. “I’m— I’m just wondering why the government’s making us do this.”

The legal answer trudges a decadelong path including a three-person federal board that couldn’t make a quorum for five years. There was a missed email to an abandoned account.

The human answer is that Harrow, 73, hasn’t given up. Largely representing himself, Harrow has seen his appeal be rejected by the Defense Department, an administrative law judge, and a federal board.

The case writing Harrow’s name in the annals of jurisprudence considers only whether that deadline is so inflexible that it would prevent his claim from ever getting its day in court. So, the Supreme Court will render a decision on something that might seem beneath it.

Possible Preaching Angles:

As Jesus would say, “Will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?” (Luke 18:7)

Suzanne Gaskins is a psychologist with a background working with indigenous children in Mexico. She wanted to test their capacity for delayed gratification, so she administered what’s called The Marshmallow Test. She offered each child the choice of eating one marshmallow immediately, or waiting while she left the room for the promise of two marshmallows.

Because she’s been studying the children in this community for years and knows them generally to be proficient and high functioning, she expected many of them to be waiting when she came back. But of the six children she tested, four of them simply left the room.

Puzzled by those results, Gaskins administered a host of sixteen different tests designed to measure executive function. Even though children in this community are self-motivated and can often dress, bathe themselves, and help with chores by three years of age, about half of them failed these tests.

This led Gaskins to examine the cultural bias embedded in those traditional tests and to rethink their efficacy. When she followed up with the children who took the marshmallow test, she found that many of them simply left the room because they had other things to do than sit around waiting for a marshmallow.

“I was very surprised at my own lack of insight,” Gaskins said. “I did not recognize the bias built into the test until I sat in the room with the kids and it became obvious what was wrong.”

Lucía Alcalá assisted Gaskins in administering these tests. She said, “Just because children in different communities perform differently in our tasks, doesn’t mean there’s something wrong and we need to fix it. As U.S. scholars we feel we have to fix everyone. … People don’t need us to save them and fix them.”

For decades, a social psychologist named John Bargh has conducted studies on the way words affect behavior. In one such study, undergraduate students were given a scrambled-sentence test. One version of the test was sprinkled with rude words like “disturb,” “bother,” and “intrude.” Another version was sprinkled with polite words like “respect,” “considerate,” and “yield.” The subjects thought they were taking tests measuring lan­guage ability, but they were actually being subconsciously primed by those words.

Priming is a psychological phenomenon related to stimulus and response, and words are the lead actors. The word “nurse” is recognized more quickly if it’s preceded by the word “doctor.” The same goes for “dog” and “wolf.” Why? These words are semantic primes that cause you to think in categories. If I say Empire State Building, it puts you in a New York state of mind. In the same sense, the word “please” is a politeness prime.

After taking the five-minute scrambled-sentence test, stu­dents were supposed to walk down the hall and talk to the person running the experiment about their next assignment. However, an actor was strategically engaged in conversation with the researcher when the students arrived. The goal? Psychologist Bargh wanted to see whether the subjects who were primed with polite words would wait longer before interrupting than those who were primed with rude words.

The result? Sixty-five percent of the group primed with rude words interrupted the conversation. Those primed with polite words? Eighty-two percent of them never interrupted at all. If the test hadn't timed out at ten minutes, who knows how long they would have waited?

Possible Preaching Angle:

A few polite words. What difference do they make? In quantitative terms, they can make a 47% difference. Don’t underestimate the power of polite words.

“What happens to a dream deferred?” That opening line from Harlem renaissance poet Langston Hughes has resonated with generations of African Americans over many decades because of the legacy of racism in America, and its soul-crushing propensity to dangle the specter of opportunity while keeping it perpetually out of reach.

Ed Dwight knew this reality firsthand. In 1962, Dwight was the first black man to be selected for an American astronaut training program. He spent years preparing, training, and running experiments at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Nevertheless, because of internal resistance to his inclusion into the program, Dwight was never selected for a NASA mission.

“Just like every other Black kid, you don’t get something, and you convince yourself it wasn’t that important anyway,” said Charles Bolden Jr., one of Dwight’s friends and a former NASA administrator.

After his military career concluded, Dwight eventually put it all behind him. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Denver and eventually became an accomplished artist, with 129 memorial sculptures and over 18,000 pieces in gallery exhibits across the United States.

So, when he was invited to participate in a commercial space flight earlier this year, Dwight initially demurred. “I’m a really busy guy,” said Dwight. “It didn’t make a lot of difference to me at the time.”

But a group of current and former black astronauts intervened, and reminded him of the years he spent training to fill a role he was never allowed to consummate. Because of them, Dwight changed his mind.

And by the time Dwight achieved spaceflight on the Blue Origin vessel, he broke another historic barrier. At 90 years old, Ed Dwight became the oldest person to fly in space, surpassing the previous record holder, former Star Trek star William Shatner.

One of the men who convinced Dwight to take the flight was Victor Glover, Jr. “While he was off the planet, I was weeping. It was tears of joy and resolution,” said Glover. He’d met Dwight in 2007, after receiving one of Dwight’s sculptures at an award presentation. Only later did Glover learn Dwight’s own personal history of unfulfilled longing within NASA.

“I was in the presence of greatness and didn’t even know it,” Glover said. “Sixty years he sat with this and navigated it with dignity and grace and class, and that is impactful to me.”

Blue Origin honored Dwight by naming his seat on the mission after his NASA call sign: Justice.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God does not forget about the sacrifices that his servants make in the process of living faithfully. Do not lose heart, for God is in the business of making wrong things right again.

Steve Burns wasn’t conventionally handsome when he first auditioned to become the host of the Nickelodeon children’s show Blue’s Clues, but his weird, manic energy set him apart. In particular, after Burns would ask a question, he would get very close to the camera and incline his ear to show he was listening. Burns said in a recent interview, “I'd love to say that I was just a forward-thinking and insightful, brilliant actor, but it had nothing to do with anything like that. It was just desperation.”

What really sealed the deal, though, is how the children responded to him – one child in particular. MTV Networks, Nickelodeon’s parent company at the time, set up a focus group with toddlers, the intended audience demographic. Employee Lisa Headley brought in her two-year-old daughter. "She kind of like went a little feral, you know, dancing and carrying on, jumping up and down," Headley said. Burns ended up being hired as the host, and clips of Headley’s daughter excitedly responding to Burns were used in promotional advertisements for the show.

But Steve Burns didn’t get to meet that little girl until many, many years later. She’s now a TikTok influencer that goes by the name Astraea Regina, and they happened to be in the same comic convention in Indiana. When a friend told her that Burns was there, she dropped everything to go meet him.

"I went over to him and then I explained to him the story and his face looked so shocked," Regina said.

"I kind of thought she was just saying, 'I used to watch you on TV,'" Burns said. "I was like, 'Oh, cool, thank you. You know, that's great.' She's like, 'No, dude, that was me. I was the one who got you. I was the one in that focus group.' And that was just mind-blowing."

The two shared a hug, which was captured on social media and got more than a million views between TikTok and Instagram.

When Regina was asked why that video resonated so much with her followers, she struck an appreciative tone:

I think it gave a lot of people some context that a child's love and a child's adoration, and a child's voice actually does mean something. And I think Steve wanted that type of story to really come through because that's what he wanted someone to know, that he was still listening.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Children need to know there are loving adults willing to listen. By modeling a posture of patient engagement, we model for them the love of God, which is always present and available.

Though he played a vital role in the U.S. victory over Japan in World War II, Navy Capt. Joseph Rochefort and his heroics long went unrecognized. Rochefort, who died in 1976, was a mid-level intelligence officer whose small unit in Hawaii provided the analysis that led to the U.S. naval victory in the Battle of Midway—the turning point of the Pacific war.

In 1929 the Navy sent three young officers, including Rochefort, to Japan to spend three years becoming fluent in the Japanese language and culture. Then in 1941 Rochefort was sent to Station Hypo at Pearl Harbor to lead a team of code-breakers. By May 1942, Rochefort believed he had sufficient evidence from intercepted Japanese radio traffic to convince Adm. Chester Nimitz that two Japanese fleets of carriers and battleships were at sea on their way to attack Midway Island. Top Navy officers didn’t accept Rochefort’s judgment.

Rochefort and his team came up with a ploy to persuade their superiors: The U.S. base at Midway would send out a message to Navy-supply services that the Midway desalination system was failing and there was a dearth of drinking water on the island. The Japanese took the bait and immediately provided desalting materials to their landing forces, thus confirming that Midway was a target for invasion.

Rochefort was vindicated. Rochefort served the rest of his career with honor, without being awarded the Distinguished Service Medal he was clearly due. That was corrected by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, when Rochefort—44 years after Midway—was posthumously given the award.

Possible Preaching Angle:

There are also many believers who faithfully serve the Lord without human recognition or applause. They will be remembered by the Lord on the day when works are judged and will be given their great reward by the One who sees all who faithfully and quietly serve him.

If you’re a young parent, you’re probably used to hearing “Why?” a lot! With that in mind, a new survey finds moms and dads field an average of 11 questions from their young children each day.

A new poll of 2,000 parents of kids under six finds that between being asked “What?” (37%), “When?” (22%), and “Why?” (11%), parents are always on call when their kids get curious.

Children most commonly ask questions to better understand the world around them, such as asking about animals, nature, current events, and home experiences. When asked about the most interesting question their child has ever asked, parents mentioned “Why is the sky so high?” and “Why can fish keep their eyes open in water?”

Children’s questions may be frequent, but they aren’t always easy, as parents admit they can confidently answer an average of only 42% of their child’s questions. Poll results also reveal that 81% of parents learn just as much from their child as their child learns from them. The average parent learns something new from their child about five times per week, and four in five parents are surprised by their child’s knowledge of certain topics.

In the 2023 South East Asia 500-meter race, one runner showed what it really means to run the race well. Despite the pounding rain and her last place finish, Bou Samnang refused to give up. Cheering fans encouraged the native Cambodian as she finished the race on behalf of her country, six minutes after the race was decided.

Despite knowing that she would not finish first place, Bou Samnang was determined to finish well. According to one news source she said, "I tried to reach the finish line because I wanted to show people that in life, even though we go a bit slow or fast, we will reach our destination all the same."

It would have been easy for her to stop running, especially as she was dealing with anemia which prevented her from running as fast as she would have liked. But her determination and endurance has led to her inspiring fans around the world.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Paul wrote that our faith journey resembles a race. Running the race well doesn’t always mean finishing first. It does mean, working hard for something outside of yourself, persisting with a goal, and enduring hard times for Christ. We are encouraged to be like Bou Samnang, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, endure to the end.

Garret Keizer was asked by his minister to visit an elderly parishioner, Pete, in a nursing home. Garret finds out that Pete loves bananas, so he starts bringing some on each week’s visit. Garrett said:

I was standing with my Chiquitas in line at the supermarket behind one of those people who seem to think they're at a bank instead of a store. She must have had three checkbooks. I shifted from one foot to the other, sighing, glancing at the clock. I wanted to catch Pete before supper. No doubt I was feeling the tiniest bit righteous because I was about the Lord's business on behalf of my old man, who needed his bananas and was looking forward to my company. And here was this loser buying an armful of trivial odds and ends and taking my precious time to screw around with her appallingly disorganized finances.

When I finally got through the line, I watched her walk to her vehicle feeling that same uncharitable impulse that makes us glance at the driver of a car we're passing just to “get a look at the jerk.” She got into the driver's seat of a van marked with the name of a local nursing home and filled to capacity with elderly men and women who had no doubt handed her their wish lists and checkbooks as soon as she'd cut the ignition.

In their book The Power of Moments, Chip and Dan Heath describe an experiment in which participants underwent three painful trials. In the first, they submerged a hand for 60 seconds in a bucket filled with frigid, 57-degree water.

In the second trial, the time was increased by 30 seconds. For the first 60 seconds, the water was still 57-degrees. But in the final 30 seconds, it was raised to 59-degrees. In neither trial were participants told how long the experiment would last.

Before their third and final bucket, they were asked if they'd prefer to repeat the first or second experiment. A whopping 69% chose the longer trial! Think about that for a moment. In both of the first two trials, their hand was placed in frigid water. The second trial was 30 seconds longer and only slightly less uncomfortable in the end. Yet, more than two out of three people asked to repeat the second trial. Why?

Psychologists tell us it's because when people assess an experience, they rate the experience based on its best or worst part (that is, the peak) and the ending. They call it the "peak-end rule."

Whether you like it or not, people will tend to remember you for when you were at your best, or worst, and for the way you were in the end. It's impossible for any of us to always be at our best. Our worst selves will sometimes slip out no matter how hard we try to hide them. But the ending is something we can better control. Knowing that it's the end, we can devote more time and attention to getting it right.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Christian Life; Discipleship - Right now, your life may be average by most standards, with all of its highs and lows, but if you make an effort to end well your every encounter with other people, you'll leave them with a good impression. There are no second chances for making a good first impression, but there's always the chance to end well. 2) Pastor; Minister - Overall, a sermon may be so-so; but if the conclusion is memorable, it'll likely be remembered fondly weeks later.

Conventional wisdom says that good things come to those who wait. That axiom rarely applies, however, to the drudgery of domestic air travel as most people go through the modern air travel system. Phil Stringer, however, is not most people.

Stringer travels for work quite often. So, when his early morning flight from Oklahoma City to his hometown of Charlotte experienced a maintenance-related flight delay, he took it in stride, relocating from the gate to a nearby Starbucks.

But then the delays continued, dragging on throughout the day. Eventually he outlasted the staff at the airport Starbucks, who had to kick him out so they could close. When he finally heard the boarding call, however, he was confused.

Stringer said in an interview, "I had thought that everyone had boarded and I was late, because no one was there But [the gate agent] was like, 'No, honey, you're the only one left.'" Everyone else, fed up with the lengthy delays, had sought other options.

The airline, however, could not simply cancel the flight, because the plane and its cargo were needed in Charlotte. So, after being unceremoniously summoned from their nearby hotel, the crew of four flight attendants went through their normal routine, despite having only one passenger. Stringer spent the two-and-a-half-hour flight laughing and joking with them, quite bemused by the novelty of the situation.

He captured his unique scenario with a video and uploaded it to TikTok, where it went viral with over eleven million likes. Stringer said, "We were like, look, we can either be negative about the situation and make a bad situation worse by our attitude. Or we can be positive, lighthearted, and try and make something of this and at least just have fun."

Stringer made some good friends that day, and made plans to see the group of attendants in their home base of Dallas the next time he comes through. He also heard from many people on social media who were encouraged to keep a positive attitude when their plans go awry.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Patience is a virtue precisely because part of the Christian life is waiting patiently on God for outcomes that only God can accomplish or control. When we exhibit patience, we are continually putting trust in God to accomplish the things God has promised.

October 27, 1962 was the day the world almost ended. One man, Vasily Arkhipov, displayed the virtue of self-control. He was the second in command of the Soviet submarine B-59 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Located deep underwater near Cuba and unable to receive outside communication due to mandated radio silence, the crew had not heard anything from Moscow in days when they were detected by the US Navy. The Americans released explosives intended to force B-59 to the surface.

The crew was unsure how to proceed. Battery power in the submarine was dwindling, and the extreme heat in the vessel became unbearable. Some members of the crew suspected that war had broken out and wanted to launch nuclear warheads toward the US mainland to aid the Soviet offensive. Of course, if war had not broken out, this action would certainly begin one and likely result in global devastation.

The captain and the third-in-command both wanted to launch the missile, but Soviet protocol required that all three officers make the unanimous decision to strike, and Arkhipov wanted to think about it. He eventually decided that he wouldn't agree to the launch, but instead would wait for orders.

As Arkhipov’s cooler head prevailed, the sub surfaced. The US Navy surrounded them and forced them to return to the Soviet Union in shame. For years, Arkhipov endured taunts in his home country for choosing to surface. However, in 2002, Robert McNamara, the former US Secretary of Defense, publicly acknowledged that Arkhipov's decision prevented a nuclear war at “the most dangerous moment in human history.” Arkhipov is a notable example of someone who displayed self-control and integrity despite direct pressure to do the opposite.

Actress Diane Kruger (National Treasure, In The Fade) was once offered a role that required her to play a young wife and mother, experiencing the loss of her husband and child. Since she hadn’t personally experienced such painful losses in her own life, Diane realized that the only way she could prepare herself for the important role, would be to connect with people and groups that were walking through extreme grief and similar experiences.

It is said that initially, she began to offer her own thoughts and responses with those who shared their stories in the groups she attended. However, she gradually realized that it would be far better for her to stop talking, and to start listening with empathy to their stories. That decision brought about a meaningful learning curve that helped her adapt to the role she had to play in the film.

Possible Preaching Angle:

In conversations, how often are we eager to air our thoughts and views without listening to the other person? The Bible however advises us to be careful of the words we speak, and about the importance of being willing to listen to others. James 1:19 says, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak.”

Most people have never heard of Coach Miller Bugliari, but the legendary American boys’ high school soccer coach is still at it—coaching his 63rd consecutive season, at age 87. The accumulated numbers are absurd. Bugliari possesses a lifetime coaching record that looks like an international telephone number: 916 wins, 130 losses, 82 ties. The list of titles includes 21 state championships. There is so much hardware and memorabilia piled into Bugliari’s office it can be difficult to locate the Hall of Fame coach behind his desk.

People around him note that humility is one of the keys to his success. In a recent interview he quietly told a reporter, “I take a little pride [in all those victories], but I try to ignore it.” Later in the same interview he said, “I think everyone is blessed with something they like to do. I just enjoy it. I’ve always enjoyed working—and the kids keep you young.” One of this year’s (2022) team captains described Coach Bugliari this way: “I think people would be surprised at how humble he is.”

For Bugliari it isn’t about the championships. Talk to a Pingry graduate about Bugliari, and you’ll get an earful about their former coach’s intellectual curiosity, his patience, the way he shaped young men into parents, leaders, and coaches themselves.