{"id":40085,"date":"2017-02-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cab-driver-praises-hero-john-elway-before-realizing-hes-dri\/"},"modified":"2017-02-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-06T00:00:00","slug":"cab-driver-praises-hero-john-elway-before-realizing-hes-dri","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cab-driver-praises-hero-john-elway-before-realizing-hes-dri\/","title":{"rendered":"Cab Driver Praises Hero John Elway Before Realizing He&#8217;s Driving Him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#39;ve all been asked the question: &quot;If you had the chance to talk to your hero, who would it be and what would you say?&quot; Washington, D.C. cab driver Sam Snow didn&#39;t have much of a chance to prepare for a conversation with his hero, though, because it took him by surprise.<\/p>\n\n<p>While driving his taxi , Snow mentioned to his passengers that even though he was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, his all-time favorite player was Broncos legend John Elway. The passengers then asked him if he thought he could recognize Elway if he ever met him. Snow then turned around to realize that the famous former quarterback, who was in Washington, D.C. for the presidential inauguration, was in fact riding in his own backseat. The two snapped a quick picture, but only after Snow chastised Elway for beating his Steelers so many times in the playoffs.<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Potential Preaching Angles: <strong>(1) Hospitality<\/strong>&mdash;we are sometimes entertaining angels unawares as Hebrews 13 reminds us. <strong>(2) God, presence of<\/strong>&mdash;it&#39;s possible for God to be near and at work in our lives but we don&#39;t recognize his presence.<\/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":[3387,3876,3921,4170,4188,4210,4232,4546,4699,4776,4790,5037,5057],"tax_ctp_topics":[384,395],"class_list":["post-40085","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-advent","tax_ctp_tags-epiphany","tax_ctp_tags-experiencing-god","tax_ctp_tags-hospitality","tax_ctp_tags-humanity-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-illumination","tax_ctp_tags-incarnation-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-presence-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-recognition","tax_ctp_tags-rejection","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-blindness","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-perception"],"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},{"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>Cab Driver Praises Hero John Elway Before Realizing He&#039;s Driving Him - 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\/cab-driver-praises-hero-john-elway-before-realizing-hes-dri\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cab Driver Praises Hero John Elway Before Realizing He&#039;s Driving Him - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We&#039;ve all been asked the question: &quot;If you had the chance to talk to your hero, who would it be and what would you say?&quot; Washington, D.C. cab driver Sam Snow didn&#039;t have much of a chance to prepare for a conversation with his hero, though, because it took him by surprise. While driving his Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cab-driver-praises-hero-john-elway-before-realizing-hes-dri\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cab-driver-praises-hero-john-elway-before-realizing-hes-dri\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cab-driver-praises-hero-john-elway-before-realizing-hes-dri\/\",\"name\":\"Cab Driver Praises Hero John Elway Before Realizing He's Driving Him - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-06T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-06T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cab-driver-praises-hero-john-elway-before-realizing-hes-dri\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cab-driver-praises-hero-john-elway-before-realizing-hes-dri\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cab-driver-praises-hero-john-elway-before-realizing-hes-dri\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cab Driver Praises Hero John Elway Before Realizing He&#8217;s Driving Him\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cab Driver Praises Hero John Elway Before Realizing He's Driving Him - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/cab-driver-praises-hero-john-elway-before-realizing-hes-dri\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cab Driver Praises Hero John Elway Before Realizing He's Driving Him - CT Pastors","og_description":"We&#39;ve all been asked the question: &quot;If you had the chance to talk to your hero, who would it be and what would you say?&quot; Washington, D.C. cab driver Sam Snow didn&#39;t have much of a chance to prepare for a conversation with his hero, though, because it took him by surprise. 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