Social Impact

A reporter for Business Insider writes:

Recently, my family group chat buzzed when I asked if we should say "please" and "thank you" to ChatGPT when making requests. My mother, always polite, insisted on using manners with AI to "keep myself human."

As AI like ChatGPT becomes part of daily life, our interactions with these tools are shaping new social norms. Digital etiquette expert Elaine Swann notes that, just as we've adapted to new technology—like knowing not to take phone calls on speaker in public—we're still figuring out how to treat AI bots.

Kelsey Vlamis, another Business Insider reporter, noticed this shift personally. While vacationing in Italy, her husband had to stop himself from interrupting their tour guide with rapid-fire questions, realizing that’s how he interacts with ChatGPT but not with people. "That is not, in fact, how we talk to human beings," Vlamis said.

Swann emphasizes that maintaining respect in all interactions—human or digital—is important. After OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed on X that it costs "tens of millions of dollars" to process polite phrases like "please" and "thank you" sent to ChatGPT, Swann argued that it’s up to companies to make this more efficient, not for users to drop politeness.

"This is the world that we create for ourselves," Swann said. "And AI should also understand that this is how we speak to one another, because we're teaching it to give that back to us."

Altman, for his part, believes the expense is justified, saying the money spent on polite requests to ChatGPT is money "well spent."

As we navigate this new era, how we interact with AI may shape not just our technology, but our humanity as well.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This story about politeness toward AI can be used to illustrate several Biblical themes, such as human dignity, respectful communication, and ethical responsibility. 1) Kindness – Making kindness a habit reflects the nature of God (Eph. 4:32); 2) Human nature – The mother’s desire to “keep myself human” through politeness reflects the imperative of Col. 3:12 “Clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” 3) Respect for others - The husband’s struggle to avoid ChatGPT-style interruptions with his tour guide highlights the tension between efficiency and humility (Phil. 2:3-4).

The great scientist Albert Einstein said that he stood on the shoulders of James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist. Maxwell’s insights into electromagnetism laid the foundation for the communication technologies we enjoy today.

In 1873 Maxwell delivered an essay at Cambridge titled “On Determinism and Free Will.” In that address Maxwell spoke about miracles, which he called “singular points.” A singular point occurs within history, but its occurrence is so infrequent and so relatively small that when it occurs, the finite mind cannot grasp its force for change. For example, in 1809 all the world was looking at Napoleon’s vast military exploits. Yet who noticed that a baby named Abraham was born that same year in northern Kentucky in a tiny log cabin? Retrospectively, of course, the world can now see the significance of that hour, which opened up a chance for this ship of state to be guided through the storms and into safe harbor, thereby preserving the Union and freeing those in the bondage of slavery. A singular point.

According to Maxwell, history is replete with these miracles that have changed the destiny of civilizations. A single person, a small group, an idea, a book—all can be points at which the vital moves the massive. We cannot see singular points of history in their origins. We can only grasp their significance years if not eras later.

“Any assessment of history which does not take into account the possibility of miracles is a false assessment of history,” said Maxwell. H.G. Wells named names: “I am a historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”

It's always interesting listening to some folks who are trying to make sense of Christian virtues. For example, The Journal of Positive Psychology ran an article with the following headline: "Humble persons are more helpful than less humble persons: Evidence from three studies."

Humble people are helpful. Wow, you don't say? How shocking! The abstract for the article reads: "Humble participants helped more than did less humble participants even when agreeableness and desirable responding were statistically controlled." In non-technical language, this means in situations where people wanted to help for unselfish reasons, people who weren't full of themselves were more likely to actually lend a hand. The article also reports that humble people even make better bosses and employees.

So how do you explain this strange virtue? Well, not to worry. The researchers tried to examine the evidence "for the evolutionarily predicted connection between humility and helping." Christians have a simpler explanation for humility: It comes from Jesus.

The dining room is the closest thing the American home has to an appendix—a dispensable feature that served some more important function at an earlier stage of architectural evolution. Many of them sit gathering dust, patiently awaiting the next “dinner holiday” on Easter or Thanksgiving.

That’s why the classic, walled-off dining room is getting harder to find in new single-family houses. It won’t be missed by many. Americans now tend to eat in spaces that double as kitchens or living rooms—a small price to pay for making the most of their square footage.

But in many new apartments, even a space to put a table and chairs is absent. Eating is relegated to couches and bedrooms, and hosting a meal has become virtually impossible. The housing crisis is killing off places to eat whether we like it or not, designing loneliness into American floor plans.

According to surveys in 2015 and 2016 by the National Association of Home Builders, 86 percent of households want a combined kitchen and dining room—a preference accommodated by only 75 percent of new homes. If anything, the classic dining room isn’t dying fast enough for most people’s taste.

If dining space is merging with other rooms in single-family homes, it’s vanishing altogether from newly constructed apartments. Americans might not mind what’s happening to their houses, but the evolution of apartments is a more complicated story.

Floor-plan expert Bobby Fijan said “For the most part, apartments are built for Netflix and chill.” Even though we’re dining at home more and more—going to restaurants peaked in 2000—many new apartments offer only a kitchen island as an obvious place to eat.

This is partly a response to shrinking household size. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the share of one-person households more than tripled from 1940 to 2020. A dedicated dining space might feel wasted on someone who lives alone.

As households and dining spaces have contracted, the number of people eating alone has grown. According to a 2015 report by the Food Marketing Institute, nearly half the time we spend eating is spent in isolation, a central factor in America’s loneliness epidemic and a correlate to a range of physical- and mental-health problems.

Possible Preaching Angle:

In an age when Americans are spending less and less time with one another, a table and some chairs could be just what we need for fellowship and human interaction. Make an effort to invite people over, especially during the holiday season, and especially those who live alone.

In his novel, This Is Happiness, Niall Williams’ elderly narrator, Noe (pronounced No), remembers when electricity and light came to their little Irish village of Faha:

I’m aware here that it may be hard to imagine the enormity of this moment, the threshold that once crossed would leave behind a world that had endured for centuries, and that this moment was only sixty years ago.

Consider this: when the electricity did finally come, it was discovered that the 100-watt bulb was too bright for Faha. The instant garishness was too shocking. Dust and cobwebs were discovered to have been thickening on every surface since the sixteenth century. Reality was appalling. It turned out Siney Dunne’s fine head of hair was a wig, not even close in color to the scruff of his neck, and Marian McGlynn’s healthy allure was in fact a caked make-up the color of red turf ash.

In the week following the switch-on, (store owner) Tom Clohessy couldn’t keep mirrors in stock, as people came in from out the country and bought looking glasses of all variety, went home, and in merciless illumination endured the chastening of all flesh when they saw what they looked like for the first time.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Such is the illumination of the gospel—in a person’s heart, in a community, even in a culture. It’s no surprise, then, that John 3:19 says, “Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” James 1:23-24 warns against the folly of looking in the mirror of God’s Word only to walk away without changing.

The decline of the church in America is posing tremendous cultural problems. And sociologists are beginning to sound the alarm.

Once upon a time, America was a land filled with churches, dotting the leafy streets of small towns and major cities alike. In 1965, churches affiliated with mainline denominations, such as Baptists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians, claimed around 50% of the American population. However, by 2020, this number had dwindled to a mere 9%. This dramatic decline is one of the largest sociological changes in American history, impacting institutions that were once central to the nation.

The result is undeniable. We are living in an age of spiritual anxiety. Some mainline Protestants left for Evangelical churches and others for Catholicism. But much of that decline came from the people who simply felt that their politics gave them the moral satisfaction they needed.

As a result, people are desperate for meaning, latching onto fleeting political movements and slogans in search of purpose. And now their children are in the street—without any satisfaction at all. Spiritually anxious, they react to each short-lived bit of political hoopla as though it were the trumpet of Armageddon.

Desperate for meaning, they latch on to anything that gives them the exciting pleasure of seeming revolutionary, no matter how little they understand it or perform actions that meaningfully affect it. Shouting slogans, they ache for the unity of a congregation singing hymns. What Protestantism once gave, they have no more: a nation-defining pattern of marriage and children, a feeling of belonging, a belief in Providence, a sense of patriotism.

The danger in all this comes from the fact that the apocalypse is self-fulfilling. If everything in public life is elevated to world-threatening danger, if there is no meaningful private life to which to retreat, then all manners and even personal morals must be set aside in the name of higher causes—and opponents quickly come to feel they must respond with similarly cataclysmic rhetoric and action.

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist who believes that your child’s smartphone is a threat to mental well-being. His book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, hit the No. 1 spot on the New York Times’ best-seller list. This book has struck a chord with parents who have watched their kids sit slack-jawed and stock still for hours, lost in a welter of TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch, Facebook, and more. He says:

I do a little demonstration. I ask people, suppose a demon came to us in the nineties with three magical boxes. And he said, “You can open as many as you want, but if you open a box, it’s going to take fifteen hours a week from you.”

The first box is the Internet. You get this amazing thing, but it’s going to take fifteen hours a week from you. Would you open it? Are you glad we have the Internet? Everyone is glad we opened that box. We think that time is worth it.

The next box is the smartphone. You open it up. It’s this incredible digital Swiss Army knife (of apps and functions). It’s going to take another fifteen hours a week. So now you’re up to thirty hours a week on this. Do you want it? Are you glad we have smartphones? At that point, most hands go up. The great majority of adults say, “Yeah, I’m glad we opened that box.” Now you’re at thirty hours a week.

Next there’s a third box: social media – Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, TikTok. It’s going to be another fifteen hours a week. So now you’re up to forty-five hours a week. What do you think? Are you glad we opened that?

The great majority of people say, “I wish we hadn’t opened that one.” I’m not talking about keeping kids off the Internet. I’m talking about not allowing them … to give away their data, and some rights, to a company that does not have their interests at heart. That is using them as the product to sell to their customers who are the advertisers. That’s what I don’t want done to eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen-year-old kids.

In his book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing An Epidemic of Mental Illness, Jonathan Haidt tells the story of what happened to Gen Z (born 1995). They became “the first generation in history to go through puberty with a portal in their pockets that called them away from the people nearby and into an alternative universe that was exciting, addictive, unstable and . . . unsuitable for children and adolescents.”

In 2011, 23% of teens had a smartphone. By 2016, 79% of teens owned a smartphone, as did 28% of children eight to 12. Soon teens were reporting they spent an average of almost seven hours a day on screens. “One out of every four teens said that they were online ‘almost constantly,’” Mr. Haidt writes.

Girls moved their social lives onto social media. Boys burrowed into immersive video games, Reddit, YouTube, and pornography.

Suddenly children “spent far less time playing with, talking to, touching, or even making eye contact with their friends and families.” They withdrew from “embodied social behaviors” essential for successful human development. It left them not noticing the world.

Signs of a mental-health crisis quickly emerged. Rates of mental illness among the young went up dramatically in many Western countries between 2010 and 2015. Between 2010 and 2024 major depression among teens went up 145% among girls, 161% among boys. There was a rise in disorders related to anxiety as well. Mr. Haidt looked at changes that weren’t self-reported—studies charting emergency psychiatric care and admissions. They too were up. “The rate of self-harm for . . . young adolescent girls nearly tripled from 2010 to 2020.”

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist who believes that your child’s smartphone is a threat to mental well-being. His new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, hit the No. 1 spot on the New York Times’ best-seller list.

This book has struck a chord with parents who have watched their kids sit slack-jawed and stock still for hours, lost in a welter of TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitch, Facebook, and more. Haidt blames the spike in teen-age depression and anxiety on the rise of smartphones and social media, and he offers a set of prescriptions: no smartphones before high school, no social media before age sixteen.

His concern is with a lack of protection for the young in the virtual world. Tech companies and social-media platforms have been “designing a firehose of addictive content.” This is causing kids to forgo the social for the solitary and have “rewired childhood and changed human development on an almost unimaginable scale.” He continues:

In 2008 the original iPhone was an amazing Swiss Army knife. It was one of the greatest inventions of humankind. So, if I wanted to get from point A to point B, hey, there’s a mapping function. If I want to listen to music, hey, there’s an iPod, and it was not harmful to anyone’s mental health.

But then a couple things changed in rapid succession, and the smartphone changed from being our servant to being our master, for many people. In 2008, the App Store comes out. In 2009, push notifications come out. So now you have this thing in your pocket in which thousands or millions of companies are trying to get your attention and trying to keep you on their app. In 2010, the front-facing camera comes out; in 2010, Instagram comes out, which was the first social-media app designed to be exclusively used on the smartphone.

So, the environment that we were in suddenly changes. Now the smartphone isn’t just a tool; it is actually a tool of mass distraction. What I mean by “the great rewiring” is this … once we get super-viral social media in 2010, a lot of things change. Now it’s not just “Hey, I’m bored, let me play a video game.” It’s “My phone is pinging me saying, ‘Someone cited you in a photo. Someone said something about you. Somebody liked your post.’” We’ve given these companies a portal to our children. They can control and manipulate them, send them notifications whenever they want.

I’ve heard stories from Gen Z. They go over to their friends’ houses sometimes—not that much—and they’re on their phones separately. One might be watching her shows on Netflix. One might be checking her social. ... There’s a wonderful phrase from the sociologist Sherry Turkle: “Because of our phones, we are forever elsewhere. We’re never fully present.”

High fives, fist bumps, and words of encouragement are given freely by the Flash Dads. The Flash Dads program was launched seven years ago by Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky, and there are now several dozen members. The men go to elementary schools across Louisville and line up to greet students, cheering them on and getting the day started on a positive note.

Participant Roger Collins said, The Flash Dads are "community members showing up for students who sometimes don't have anybody showing up for them." Another member of the Flash Dads, James Bogan, heard about it through his grandson, and signed up so he could surprise him one day at school. "It's contagious and I've been doing it ever since," he said.

The Flash Dads take their duties as role models and mentors to heart, and Bogan said the students know "we're not just there that day. We're there whenever you need us. It's not a one-day thing, it's a lifetime thing."

In 1939, Lloyd Dong and his family were having difficulty finding a place to live. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1884 and the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 were part of a series of racially exclusive laws and ordinances designed to prevent Chinese immigrants like the Dongs from being able to successfully settle down. But the Dongs did eventually find a place, thanks to Emma and Gus Thompson, two Black entrepreneurs who first rented and then eventually sold a house in Coronado, California to the family.

That act of kindness helped the Dongs become a part of American society. Now, generations later, the Dongs want to honor the Thompsons by donating $5 million of the proceeds of the sale of that property to a scholarship fund for Black students. Lloyd Dong, Jr. said, “Without them, we would not have the education and everything else.”

Ron and his wife Janice are both retired educators who understand the value of education, which is why they’re also working to have the Black Resource Center at San Diego State University named after the Thompsons. Janice said, “It may enable some kids to go and flourish in college that might not have been able to otherwise.”

The Thompsons initial gesture of hospitality seems even more miraculous when you consider the context. Emma and Gus Thompson originally traveled to Coronado from Kentucky to work at a local hotel, and built their house in 1895, before many of the restrictive racial housing covenants were enacted. The Thompson’s property in Coronado originally featured a residence and a small boarding house on the upper floor of a barn, intentionally created to house vulnerable people with no other place to go.

Jo Von McCalester, a professor at Howard University, said, “It was just something understood that marginalized people in San Diego had to rely very heavily on one another. One family’s sacrifice can shape the lives of so many.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

When we pass on the generosity that we’ve received from others, we model the generous love of God who lavishes on all without regard for status, heritage, or bloodline.

These days, Americans seem divided by almost everything. But you know what has proved successful at bringing Americans of different backgrounds together? Unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks. Also, riblets, onion rings, chicken crispers, and other crowd-pleasers from affordable chain restaurants such as Olive Garden and Applebee’s.

Though sometimes banned by municipalities wanting to "preserve neighborhood character” or slow gentrification, these chains actually provide a hidden social service: They promote much more socioeconomic integration than do independently owned commercial businesses—or, for that matter, traditional public institutions.

That’s according to a provocative new paper from Maxim Massenkoff and Nathan Wilmers. The authors analyzed a massive trove of geolocation data to assess where Americans come into contact with people of different income classes than themselves—if they do at all.

Sadly, the paper also found that many public institutions we might associate with facilitating encounters across class lines instead reinforce seclusion. Parks, schools, libraries, and churches. There are exceptions, but on average, each of these establishments leads to less socioeconomic mixing, more within-income-group hobnobbing, and even more class isolation.

Some come with track marks from years of drug abuse. Others come with children in tow. Some are struggling through a bad week. Others, a bad decade. All bring their dirty laundry. They wash it and dry it for free at church-run laundry services throughout the United States. “Christ said we should feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and I think those clothes should be clean,” said Catherine Ambos, a volunteer at one such ministry in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Churches have been washing clothes across the US since at least 1997, when a minister at First United Methodist Church of Arlington, Texas, started doing a circuit around the city’s coin-operated laundries, passing out change. There may well have been others before this. Today, these ministries exist across the country, run by churches of all traditions and sizes.

Belmont Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Virginia, has one of the older laundromat ministries still running. The church started helping people clean their clothes in 2010, when pastor Greg Anderson heard through another ministry that poor people in homeless shelters and long-term-stay motels would regularly throw away their clothes.

Anderson said, “It was just easier to go and get new clothes at a clothing-center type of ministry as opposed to being able to launder them.” The church decided to install five washers and dryers in a building on its property and open a laundromat. Today, volunteers estimate that they save people upwards of $25,000 per year. This is money they didn’t have, or if they did, they could now spend on food, gas, or medicine.

19.25 million US households are without a washing machine.

38% of US households earn less than $50,000 per year.

The New York Times ran a lengthy and sobering report on the mental health crisis among US teens. The article’s subtitle declared, “Depression, self-harm, and suicide are rising among American adolescents.” The article noted:

American adolescence is undergoing a drastic change. Three decades ago, the gravest public health threats to teenagers in the United States came from binge drinking, drunken driving, teenage pregnancy and smoking. These have since fallen sharply, replaced by a new public health concern: soaring rates of mental health disorders.

The decline in mental health among teenagers was intensified by the COVID pandemic but predated it, spanning racial and ethnic groups, urban and rural areas and the socioeconomic divide. In a rare public advisory, the US surgeon general warned of a “devastating” mental health crisis among adolescents. Numerous hospital and doctor groups have called it a national emergency.

An expert cited in the article concluded: “By many markers, kids are doing fantastic and thriving. But there are these really important trends in anxiety, depression, and suicide that stop us in our tracks. We need to figure it out. Because it’s life or death for these kids.”

Gillian Murphy is director of the Elting Memorial Library, and she’s proud of the impact it’s having on her community. She said, “It used to be all the information people needed was in books. Some people couldn’t afford books, and that’s why libraries came about. Now, information is online. Libraries have morphed.”

The transformation of which she speaks is a movement that’s catching in libraries across the country. More and more of them are being identified under the catch-all label “Library of Things.” These are places that feature more than books to check out, but also specialty household items like board games, appliances, or yard tools. Murphy said, “Something you’d borrow from your neighbor.”

As of this writing, a brief Google search for “library of things” reveals hits for similar collections in places like Berks County, Pennsylvania, Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Sacramento, California. But according to Murphy, the key to a successful library of things is the same as it is for any library--it must be reflective of the community’s needs and interests.

That said, Murphy is gratified at seeing the library continue to be a hub of community interest, where people can not only borrow useful items and not have to buy them, but also gather for events and socialize. She says the library of things has driven more people to sign up for library cards. Librarian Stephanie Harrison concurs, “A library card is the most valuable card in your wallet.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Part of being in the family of God is cultivating a heart of generosity to help meet the needs of everyone in the community.

1.3 million people in the Netherlands are older than 75—and one large supermarket chain is making sure they’re not getting too lonely in their elder years.

The Dutch government with its campaign, “One Against Loneliness,” has galvanized towns, companies, and individuals to find solutions. The grocer giant, Jumbo, is doing their part with its innovative chatty check outs.

The idea for the “Kletskassa,” which translates to “chat checkout,” originated more than two years ago—and in the summer of 2019 the first chat checkout was opened. This resulted in many positive reactions from customers—and now Jumbo is expanding the initiative further. In 2022, there will be chat checkouts in 200 stores across the country where people can go for a conversation.

Colette Cloosterman-van Eerd, CCO of Jumbo, is closely involved in the initiative. She says,

Many people, especially the elderly, sometimes feel lonely. As a family business and supermarket chain, we are at the heart of society.

Our stores are an important meeting place for many people and we want to play a role in identifying and reducing loneliness. We are proud that many of our cashiers like to take a seat behind a “chat checkout.” They want to help people to make real contact out of genuine interest. It is a small gesture, but very valuable, especially in a world that is digitizing and getting faster and faster.

Hopefully the Dutch national movement towards supporting older people will catch on in many more countries around the world.

Laurie Fenby, was shopping at a garage sale in Rochester, New York and as she was leaving, she found a wallet on the ground. She looked inside and found a Jamaican driver’s license, some American cash, and some Jamaican cash. She tried all the usual ways to locate the man, whose name was George.

She couldn’t find him through Google or Facebook and so she asked for suggestions through Nextdoor, a community website. Laurie received a lot of ideas and responses. One lady suggested that she contact a little store that is known to have many Jamaican migrant workers as clients. Laurie called the store and found that yes, indeed, there was someone named George who lost his wallet. She suggested that the owner contact George and have him call her. When George contacted her, he was able to identify all the contents of the wallet and Laurie was able to return it.

But it didn’t stop there. Laurie asked George, “What do you and the migrant workers need?” He said they could use some warm clothes. Laurie immediately contacted the Nextdoor community and was able to organize a clothing drive. She received lots of T-shirts, sweatshirts, shoes, and other supplies.

Recently Laurie was able to meet George and the other migrant workers in Rochester, and she joined them to pick apples together. They’re so thankful to Laurie and her friends—and none of this community-building or friendship would have happened if the wallet had stayed in George’s pocket.

Ray DeMonia needed intensive care for a cardiac event, so naturally, his providers wanted to place him in the hospital intensive care unit. Unfortunately, there were no ICU beds available at his hospital--or at any of the surrounding areas. Hospital officials contacted 43 different hospitals across three states before they found an open bed where they could send him--170 miles away, in Meridian, Mississippi.

Unfortunately, that’s where DeMonia died. Even though his illness was not a result of COVID-19, the severe shortage of ICU beds that fatally delayed his treatment was a direct result of so many people needing treatment for COVID-19. Despite a readily available vaccine that prevents the vast majority of hospitalizations, local ICUs were--and continue to be--full of mostly unvaccinated patients dealing with severe coronavirus infections.

Dr. Don Williamson, head of the Alabama Hospital Association said, “Every day hospitals are trying to find a place to transfer patients, and it is very difficult. We’ve had patients transferred to Georgia, to Kentucky, to Florida.”

After his death, DeMonia’s family made a simple request to the general public: “In honor of Ray, please get vaccinated if you have not, in an effort to free up resources for non-COVID related emergencies. He would not want any other family to go through what his did.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

It is wrong when people in need go without help because of the selfishness of others. Even the choices that we consider to be personal still have ripple effects that affect the community as a whole.

Don Ritchie has lived beside a cliff used for suicidal jumps for 50 years. Every time someone approaches the cliff, he goes out to make sure they don’t take their life. Over the years, he has stopped at least 160 people from killing themselves. That’s just the official estimate. The real number is said to be 400 according to his family. (Don passed away on May 13, 2012).

Don happened to live near The Gap, an ocean cliff at Sydney. It is a popular visitor destination which has gained infamy as a suicide spot over the years. It is estimated that about 50 people end their lives there each year. As individuals walked up to the cliff, looking at the crashing waves below and wondering whether to jump, Don would approach them with a smile asking, “Why don’t you come and have a cup of tea?”

Accepting his offer, these people would be invited into his home where they would have a chat over tea. No counselling, no advising, no prying. Just one human being lending a listening ear to another. Some of these people had mental problems, some had medical illnesses, some are just people going through a rough patch in life. For many, a listening ear was apparently what they needed as they changed their minds about jumping after the chat, and turned back home.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The people we walk past in the street may be on the verge of throwing in the towel--giving up. As Christians, we should be situated on the edge of their “cliff” offering hope, love, and a listening ear. We should point to Jesus who says to them, “Come unto me and I will give you rest.”

On Twitter recently, NFL star Ndamukong Suh proceeded to, as the young ones call it, “spill some tea.” Except this time, the salacious details were not about another player or celebrity, but rather, himself.

A veteran defensive tackle for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Suh spent some time reflecting on the approximately three years he spent with the Miami Dolphins. Having just signed a tremendously expensive contract with the team, Suh said he arrived in Mami with the desire to make an impact on the organization. But he failed because he had “[zero] tact.” Suh tweeted, “If you’re not careful about how you do things, you end up being the bad guy.”

Though it wasn’t his intent, Suh explained how it happened. “For a long time in my career, I was always just saying what I wanted to say. Never thinking about how I delivered the message … I was just making my opinion known, regardless of how it impacted others.”

Within two years, Suh realized the net effect of this approach. “I was … creating divisions on the team … pushing people away … [and it was] putting me in a negative headspace.”

But eventually he figured out a better way. “So what did I start doing that I still do today? I listened way more than I talked, I paid attention to HOW I interacted with people, I observed others’ reactions and adjusted as needed, and I chose my words carefully to be more empathetic.”

In his conclusion, Suh claims that emotional intelligence, or EQ, is more important than IQ (intelligence quotient). He said, “Don’t just think about you want. Think about what others want.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

As Christians we are called to model the life of Jesus, who consistently made the costly choice to embrace humility and consideration in his relationships with others.