Plans

The number of Americans living to at least 100 is expected to quadruple over the next 30 years, to about 422,000 by the mid-2050’s, according to the Pew Research Center. Laura Carstensen, founding director of Stanford University’s Center on Longevity, says research has made surprising discoveries about the way older people view their lives. With fewer “what-ifs,” they appear to gain more clarity on their place in the world. She added “…changes will be needed to make the most of those added years.”

Most people believe that growing older is associated with loneliness, depression, anxiety, and that mental health suffers. The very good news is, it looks like people do better emotionally as they get older. This has been so surprising to researchers and to the general public that it’s probably been the most scrutinized finding about aging.

A lot goes wrong as we get older. There are physical problems, loss of loved ones, and age discrimination. There’s a lot that isn’t good about growing older, but people seem to do better emotionally. Older people have shorter time horizons. For many years, people thought that must make people miserable and scared. The interesting thing is there’s a paradox. It actually makes people feel calmer not to have to prepare for this long and nebulous future, and to be able to live more in the present.

Younger people are almost always thinking about the future. They almost always have one foot out the door, whatever they’re doing. And older people seem to do better just being able to be in the present and enjoy the moment. I think that is because they don’t have to keep planning. As people get older it’s clearer where they stand in the world and what they’re good at. And older people tend to look at the positive in life.

It doesn’t appear to be good for individuals or societies to have a large group of people kind of sit it out for 30 years. What we need to do is rethink how we live our lives from the beginning all the way through, in order to optimize these longer lives.

Possible Preaching Angle:

If you retire at age 65 or even 70 but live to be 100, what are you going to do for the Lord in those last 30 plus years? Are you really going to just sit in church for all those years? What does the Lord want you to do?

Some of the most successful people in history have done their best work in coffee shops. Pablo Picasso, JK Rowling, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Bob Dylan. Whether they’re painters, singer-songwriters, philosophers, or writers, people across nations and centuries have tapped into their creativity working away at a table in a café.

There are many ways coffee shops trigger our creativity in a way offices and homes don’t. Research shows that the stimuli in these places make them effective environments to work; the combination of noise, casual crowds, and visual variety can give us just the right amount of distraction to help us be our sharpest and most creative. (So, no, it’s not just that double espresso.)

Some of us stick in our earbuds as soon as we sit down to work in a public setting. But scientists have known for years that background noise can benefit our creative thinking. Several studies have shown that a low-to-moderate level of ambient noise in a place like a cafeteria can actually boost your creative output. The idea is that if you’re very slightly distracted from the task at hand by ambient stimuli, it boosts your abstract thinking ability, which can lead to more creative idea generation.

And while that “Goldilocks” level of noise is different for everyone, audio stimuli in the background also help us improve decision making. Some have even dubbed it “the coffee shop effect.” So, the jazz music, light conversation, and barista banging coffee grounds out of the grinder aren’t a nuisance, they could help you come up with your next magnum opus.

There’s also the fact that in a coffee shop, we’re surrounded by people who’ve come to do the same thing as us, which acts as a motivator. “It’s analogous to going to the gym for a workout,” says Sunkee Lee, assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. “One of the biggest things about coffee shops is the social-facilitation effect: you go there, you see other people working and it puts you in a mood where you just naturally start working as well. Just observing them can motivate you to work harder.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Bible Study; Planning; Small Groups; Togetherness - There several intriguing applications here that range from the benefit of small group Bible studies in contrast to solo devotional times, to the benefit of having board meetings away from the usual setting. We all could benefit from surrounding ourselves with fellow believers who come together to motivate each other just by being in the same room.

She is the most famous celebrity whose name you don’t know: the actress who plays Flo in all those Progressive commercials. Yes, she is a real person.

As told in the New York Times, Flo (aka Stephanie Courtney) was once a struggling comedian trying to make it big, sending in tapes of her performances to Saturday Night Live. Driving to failed auditions in a car that didn’t go in reverse—and unable to pay to get it fixed. Courtney eventually landed a small role for an insurance ad spot as a cashier.

Fast forward to today and her comedy career is still non-existent, but she makes millions of dollars a year doing what she never wanted to do for a living. Courtney may have more zeros at the end of her pay check, but her story is far from unique. Youthful aspirations so often erode into some version of settling with the hand life (and God?) has dealt you.

NYT reporter Caity Weaver asked, “Who has a better job than you?” Courtney said, “There are times when I ask myself that. The miserable me who didn’t get to audition for ‘S.N.L.’ never would have known, how good life could be when she was denied what she wanted. I hope that’s coming through. I’m screaming it in your face.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Courtney’s story suggests something profound: it is a difficult wisdom to learn, as the Prodigal Son did, that there is something far more meaningful than the glory of what we might want for our lives. The faith that holds on to Christ simultaneously lets go of everything else.

A couple's destination wedding was almost in jeopardy when their dog, Chickie, chewed up the groom's passport just days before the wedding. Donato Frattaroli and Magda Mazri connected five years prior when Magda worked at Donato’s restaurant. After three years of friendship, the couple began dating, and eventually began to plan their dream wedding at a destination in Italy, where they both have family and friends.

After eighteen months of planning and preparation, it seemed like everything was set. But just days before departure, Chickie ruined everything by chewing up Donato’s passport.

“It’s hard to describe," said Donato when he first saw the damaged passport. "It’s not like all the joy left me, but it was definitely panic.” Magda laughs when remembering the incident, because she had to act quickly to ensure their plans would stay intact. She says Donato is usually the calm one, but on that day she was able to put into practice everything she’d learned from their relationship, and quickly took charge.

They explored the possibility of obtaining a same-day passport, but the availability of appointments proved to be a major hurdle. They were willing to travel anywhere in the country to secure a passport, but with the help of local officials, managed to secure an appointment in their hometown of Boston several days later.

Reflecting on the passport ordeal, the couple found perspective during a complicated journey home after their honeymoon in France. They encountered missed flights, cancellations, and a challenging return to Boston via Amtrak. Through these trials, they learned to adapt and pivot, a valuable lesson for their journey together as a married couple.

Possible Preaching Angle:

When mishaps occur, accidents take place, or circumstances turn tragic, God is capable of supernaturally transforming our tragedies into triumph--and even if they don't work out the way we want, God will always remain with us.

Watson Thornton was already serving as a missionary in Japan when he decided to join the Japan Evangelistic Band. He decided to travel to the town where the organization’s headquarters were located and to introduce himself to its leader. But just as he was about to get on the train, he felt a tug in his spirit that he took to be the leading of the Lord telling him to wait. He was puzzled but thought he should obey.

When the next train rolled into the station, Watson started to board but again felt he should wait. When the same thing happened with the third train, Watson began to feel foolish. Finally, the last train arrived, and once more Watson felt a check. “Don’t get on the train,” it seemed to say. Watson thought he had wasted most of the day for no apparent reason. Yet as he turned to go, he heard a voice call out his name. It was the mission leader he had intended to see. He came to ask whether Watson would consider joining the Japan Evangelistic Band. If Watson had ignored the impulse and boarded the train, he would have missed the meeting.

Possible Preaching Angle:

We can’t just live by our intuition, can we? We do see something like intuition at work in the lives of God’s people in the Bible. Paul tries to enter Asia and Bithynia but is “kept by the Holy Spirit” from doing so (Acts 16:6-7). We do not always get it right using either intuition or careful deliberation. God uses both to guide us. The art of being led by the Spirit is not a matter of waiting each moment for some mystical experience of divine direction. It is a matter of trusting God for the power to obey what he has already told you to do.

Robert Pattinson has experienced a great deal of career success. High profile roles like Edward in the Twilight series, Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter series, and most recently Batman advanced his career. But these parts were interspersed with less acclaimed films. He has had good years and bad years. And in a world where culture is shifting on a daily basis, it is challenging to project what roles will be a success and what roles won't.

He knows that fame is fickle. And you are only as respected as your last role. Which makes your next role the most important. Sure, his career choices look wildly different from ours. But like you and I, a lot is left to the unknown, uncertain, and seeming to chance.

In a recent interview, Pattinson, opened up about career choices: “I don’t want to make a mistake on what to do next ... You just have to kind of think: Well, my plan is maybe a miracle will happen and everything will be fine. Which is what I think everyone has been thinking for two years." He then concludes in an uncertain voice, "Just … Uhh, I guess the plan is to just hope?”

Possible Preaching Point:

The believer’s plans are not left to an uncertain hope, but to a certain one. We serve a God who opens and closes doors according to his will, allowing us to plan on a guaranteed hope for the future (Heb. 11:1; 1 Pet. 1:3).

In a message at the Carolinas Regional Chapter of The Gospel Coalition, Andy Davis offered the following:

I was reading Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage speaking about the Lewis and Clark expedition. One of the chapters talked about preparing for the expedition. Meriwether Lewis was meeting with President Thomas Jefferson. They were going to be going from St. Louis all the way to the Pacific Ocean to explore the new Louisiana Purchase that had been bought from Napoleon.

President Jefferson and Lewis were talking together about the expedition, how it would proceed up the Missouri River, what they would need to cross the Rocky Mountains and descend the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean and then return.

The team would have to do this as a self-contained unit and once the expedition left St. Louis, Lewis would be stuck with the decisions that he had made during the planning process. How many men would he need? With what skills? How big a boat? What design? What type of rifle, how much powder, how much lead? How many cooking pots, what tools? How much dry or salted rations could be carried? What medicines in what quantity? What scientific instruments would they need? How many fishing hooks? How much salt? How much tobacco and whiskey?

Think of all of that foresight and planning required to make the great unknown and perilous journey from St. Louis up eventually to the Pacific.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God has provided the equipment we would need for the journey to the new heaven and new earth, and he put everything that we would need for it in Scripture.

Sandra McCracken writes in CT magazine:

A few years ago, I sat on the front porch of an old farmhouse in Vermont … with two friends. Above us, at the corner of the house, hung a hummingbird feeder. Tiny winged visitors stopped by intermittently to eavesdrop while sipping nectar from the glass globe.

Hummingbird wings move at about 50 beats per second. But when they (hover), hummingbirds can appear completely motionless. A miracle of fitness and form, God made these creatures to be a delicate display of paradox: They are still and active at the same time.

These birds are a moving metaphor for the kind of trust that God outlines in Isaiah 30:15: “You will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence” (CSB). When I think of God’s grace at play in my own life, my most successful moments happen when I hold steady at the center. Confidence is not found in productivity, but in quietness of heart.

Our plans are not like his plans. As the hummingbird moves, his wings are invisible to us. So too the work of God is often hard to see in the moment, but nevertheless something remarkable is happening. This is what the Lord says: “Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it?” (Isa. 43:19).

In a recent interview with INC, Jonathan McBride, who served as the director of the Presedential Personnel Office in the White House, discusses leadership in crisis moments. Near the end of the article, McBride shares this insight:

You want people who will speak truth to power. In a crisis, you really don’t want to be “yessed.” But the main thing to tune in to is people who are calm, who think clearly. At the White House, we used to tell a story about an astronaut who posed a question to a group of people: “Say you’re at the International Space Station and suddenly your oxygen goes out. You know you’ve got about 10 seconds before you start to lose consciousness. What do you do?” People started blurting out all these things they would do first—and he interrupts and says, “No. You think for eight seconds, and you make one move.”

When the lines and wait times at the local drive-through coronavirus vaccine clinic became unbearable, local officials sought out the experts. Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie said, "When I heard about it, I called Jerry and asked if he would come help us out.” The man in question was Jerry Walkowiak, manager of the local Chick-Fil-A restaurant, a chain known for serving large numbers of drive-through orders.

Mayor Haynie explained how things got sorted out. "After he looked it over, he said, 'There's your problem right there. It's backed up because you have one person checking people in.' Then he showed us how to do it right." Walkowiak mobilized a bunch of volunteers from the local Rotary Club, and before long, the hour-long wait had been trimmed to a more manageable fifteen minutes.

Walkowiak is only the latest in a long trend of professionals from adjacent fields being asked to help facilitate large-scale vaccination efforts. The Associated Press reported that health officials in Massachusetts have tapped Dave McGillivray, director of the Boston Marathon, to run mass vaccinations at Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park.

Possible Preaching Angle:

When God gives you a talent, you never know how that talent might be used to bless the community around you. Don’t look down on your abilities just because they’re not explicitly meant for use inside the church; rather, look for every opportunity to bless your community as you do your work as unto the Lord.

In the book The Cross and the Switchblade, Pastor David Wilkerson mentions the time he was going through a period of restlessness in his spirit. Although his ministry was bringing good results, Wilkerson called this period a time of “spiritual discontent.”

He therefore made a decision to give up the two hours he spent watching television daily before bedtime, replacing it with prayer. As a result of that decision, Pastor Wilkerson decided to sell his television and devoted the two hours daily for prayer.

Initially, after struggling somewhat through the two hours of daily prayer, he began to gradually feel blessed by this time spent with the Lord. One evening, during the prayer time, Pastor Wilkerson was strongly led to open a copy of a LIFE magazine on his desk. As he did so, his eyes fell upon a story of seven teenage boys, (particularly the despairing eyes of one boy), who were facing trial for murder in New York City.

The Lord then prompted him strongly to travel to New York immediately to help the teenage boys. After some hesitation, in faith and obedience he stepped into an unknown future that turned out to be the beginning of a powerful ministry of bringing the gospel to troubled teenagers.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Over the years, the work of the ministry Teen Challenge has ministered effectively to thousands of youth in need of God's saving grace. The journey began however, through clear guidance received during a time of committed prayer. God can give us guidance and help too in prayer.

In 1943, a young pastor was offered the opportunity to take over a popular Gospel Radio program called Songs in the Night. Since the cost of keeping the program on air was rather high, the pastor, who had a large vision to reach souls with the gospel, told his board that he would be willing to forgo part of his salary to help defray the costs involved. The suggestion was eventually accepted by the board.

The young pastor then approached a well-known Gospel singer, requesting him to sing and lead the choir on the program. After initially trying to back out, the singer eventually agreed to help out. That decision would change the course of his life and ministry forever! He later said, “It was the beginning – the humble beginning – of an unbelievable journey…It was exciting to be a part of something wonderful unfolding”.

The Gospel singer was George Beverly Shea and the young pastor’s name was Billy Graham.

Possible Preaching Angles: Similarly, when we take decisions that seek to glorify God, He will lead us to opportunities and open doors that only He can bring about. The God- honoring decisions we take will surely determine our destiny.

In a survey conducted by NPR and The Marist Poll last November, almost half of all American adults planned to make New Year’s resolutions. Leading the pack was the intent on exercising more.

An analysis from Strava found that we’re most likely to give up as early as mid-January. CityLab decided to look at data from Google and a fitness trade association, along with information collected from smartphones by Strava and Foursquare.

As you might expect, we start off strong. “Google trends shows that searches for topics related to exercise and weight loss spike right around January 1 each year.” Almost 11% of all gym memberships for the entire year are sold in January—greater than any other month.

So when do we start to fall off the wagon? Strava says it’s the third Thursday of January when activities dip below the four-week average of activity. Foursquare looks at when there is the first uptick in fast food eating and the first downtick in exercise activity. The forecast for this year places that day “on February 9, the second Saturday of the month, and just 40 days into the new year.”

All of the approximately 400 St. Paul firefighters train for ice rescues. The department’s firefighters usually respond to a couple of ice rescues each winter and practicing for them is important because, if someone is in the icy water, time is of the essence.

Less than two hours after St. Paul firefighters completed ice rescue training this month, they were called on to put their practice into action. A cross-country skier fell through the ice on McCarrons Lake in Roseville, and St. Paul firefighters got him to safety.

Tom McDonough, St. Paul deputy fire chief of training, said, “The new firefighter who actually went in the water to effect the rescue, said the training that day was the first time he had been in the water with the ice rescue suit doing those maneuvers.”

Possible Preaching Angle: Evangelism; Preparation; Witnessing; Soul Winning – Believers should also train in using the gospel and be prepared at any time to rescue the perishing since time is also of the essence.