{"id":39541,"date":"2017-11-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/painting-that-saved-bill-murrays-life\/"},"modified":"2017-11-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T00:00:00","slug":"painting-that-saved-bill-murrays-life","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/painting-that-saved-bill-murrays-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Painting that Saved Bill Murray&#8217;s Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The actor Bill Murray claimed that a work of art once saved his life. He was in Chicago for his first experience as an actor. Murray said, &quot;[My performance] was so bad that I just walked out afterward and onto the street. I kept walking for a couple of hours. Then I realized that I walked in the wrong direction and not in just the wrong direction from where I lived, but in the desire to stay alive.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>He headed for Lake Michigan as he contemplated taking his own life. Murray continued:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I thought, &quot;If I&#39;m going to die, I might as well go over toward the lake and float a bit.&quot; So, I walked toward the lake and reached Michigan Avenue and started walking north. Somehow I ended up in front of the Art Institute and walked inside. There was a painting of a [simple peasant] woman working in a field with a sunrise behind her. I always loved that painting. I saw it that night and said, &quot;Look, there&#39;s a girl without a whole lot of prospects, but the sun&#39;s coming up and she&#39;s got another chance at it.&quot; I said, &quot;I&#39;m a person, too, and will get another chance every single day.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>After gazing at the painting, Murray decided to live.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>You can view the painting here: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wikiart.org\/en\/jules-breton\/the-song-of-the-lark-1884\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">&quot;Song of a Lark&quot; by Jules Breton<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angles: <strong>Art; Beauty; Gratitude; Thanksgiving; Despair; Hope; God, goodness of<\/strong>&mdash;Sometimes the simple but good things of life&mdash;like beauty, for instance&mdash;can awaken us to gratitude and the goodness of God.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3437,3475,3524,3552,3726,3766,3786,3931,4084,4092,4167,4227,4254,4626,4896,5105,5146],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-39541","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-art","tax_ctp_tags-beauty","tax_ctp_tags-brokenness","tax_ctp_tags-celebrities","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-despair","tax_ctp_tags-disappointment","tax_ctp_tags-failure","tax_ctp_tags-goodness-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-gratitude","tax_ctp_tags-hope","tax_ctp_tags-imperfection","tax_ctp_tags-insecurity","tax_ctp_tags-performance","tax_ctp_tags-second-chance","tax_ctp_tags-suicide","tax_ctp_tags-thanksgiving"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Painting that Saved Bill Murray&#039;s Life - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/painting-that-saved-bill-murrays-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Painting that Saved Bill Murray&#039;s Life - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The actor Bill Murray claimed that a work of art once saved his life. 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