One Bowl of Apricots or Two
A young psych student pulling kitchen duty in the Army noticed that apricots were not very popular in the chow hall, so he decided to conduct a little experiment. He stood at the end of the chow line and rotated offering the apricots to the soldiers three very different ways:
- “You don’t want apricots, do you?”
- “You want apricots, don’t you?”
- “Do you want one serving of apricots or two?
The results were fascinating. Ninety percent of those asked You don’t want apricots, do you? said No and declined receiving a serving.
Fifty percent of those asked You want apricots, don’t you? said Yes and received a serving.
Fifty percent of those asked if they wanted one serving of apricots or two said they’d take some, while forty percent said they’d take two! Only ten percent declined all together.
There is power in a good presentation! What is your demeanor when you invite others to consider the claims of Christ? Does it say, "You don't want to know about Jesus, do you?" It's no surprise that the vast majority of these invitations are declined. Or, does it say, "You do want to know about Jesus, right?" Or, are you so bold as to ask, "Do you want one serving or two"?
"Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see" (Matthew 22:9).
Of Humpback Whales and Songs of Deliverance
Humans and birds aren't the only creatures that sing. Whales sing too. In fact, the songs of humpback whales are some of the most complex arrangements in the animal kingdom. Their ditties consist of vast roars, deep bellows, and groans interspersed with interesting sighs, chirps, whistles, and squawks.Their songs range from five to 30 minutes long.
Once a whale is done singing, it will surface to take a breath, then descend to about 50 feet, where it holds its position with its head down and then repeats the song verbatim, again and again, sometimes for hours on end.
As far as we know, only the males sing, and humpbacks in the same region of the ocean sing the same song. Each year, their songs change somewhat, as though they are experimenting with different arrangements.
The song of the humpback reaches sound levels up to 180 decibels — that's louder than a rocket blasting off! And researchers believe that some of these low-frequency sounds can travel more than 3,000 miles!
Did you know that the Bible says the loud voice of an angel can reach all around the world? "Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people - saying with a loud voice, 'Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water'" (Revelation 14:6, 7).
The Three Angels of Revelation 14 represent God's church of these last days. We, as members of His church are responsible for proclaiming the Good News of the Everlasting Gospel to the entire world. Like the mighty whales, we boldly proclaim, as the psalmist calls them, "songs of deliverance" to a needy world.
Sometimes the melodies will change, as we continually reassess how best to meet the current needs of our communities and our world. But the message will always be the same ... the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Chirst, come "to seek and to save those who are lost" (Luke 19:10, NLT).
A Willing Suspension of Disbelief (Or, Frankenstein's Monster Visits Starbucks)
In his book, RANDOMNESS HAPPENS FOR A REASON, the founder of Illustration Exchange discusses the limits of randomness in the creative process:
The term “willing suspension of disbelief” was coined by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817. Coleridge asked readers to set aside their skeptic glasses to allow a “willing suspension of disbelief,” so they might better engage with his fantasy-filled poems. Of course, we’ve all been captivated by the inked magic of a good page-turner or transported to unexplored dimensions by the bewitching spectacle of the silver screen.
But even as we indulge in one of these flights of fantasy, no one genuinely believes that the guy with the big 'S' on his chest is actually whooshing past skyscrapers, or that they might stumble across Dr. Frankenstein's pet project at Starbucks, sipping a pumpkin spice latte. Instead, for the sake of being taken on the journey, we willingly place our critical thinking on airplane mode, allowing the magic to wash over us.
What we are less cognizant of is that we are often called upon to suspend our disbelief when it comes to how we view the real world. For example, who has ever actually witnessed life springing forth from non-living matter? Given that such an event has never been observed—even in today’s high-tech, billion-dollar labs—it raises the question: What’s the difference between this “story” and the tale of Frankenstein’s life-imparting lightning bolt? As far as we’ve been able to determine, one is just as improbable as the other.
Yet, inexplicably, without blinking an eye, we suspend our critical faculties by accepting the audacious proposition that the diversity of life we witness today was woven by the clumsy fingers of blind, aimless chance. Secular society asks us to allow a “willing suspension of disbelief” so that we might better engage in its fantasy-filled theories about reality—and we have obliged.
... [To] keep the fantasy afloat, modern narrators distort reality on two fronts. They hyper-hyperbolize the creative potential of randomness while adamantly denying the authenticity of the design observed throughout nature. By tweaking the narrative in these two specific ways, it can be claimed that chaos and order not only work towards the same end; they are, in fact, the same thing.
With the help of a little creative storytelling, our critical capacities are disabled so that our brains are no longer capable of discerning the difference between chance and design. Instead, we gaze out at the vast complexities of the natural world and all we see is the byproduct of chaos. Chance and design have become indistinguishable.
But let's not be fooled: Chaos and complexity are not even on speaking terms. By any measure, they are as compatible as fire and ice. Rather than aiding and abetting order and design, entropy is a relentless saboteur, dismantling it with ruthless efficiency. ...
But beyond the realm of our imagination, randomness has real limits. It lacks the knowledge and the finesse to write the intricate DNA codes that distinguish every species inhabiting our blue marble, nor can it produce the fine-tuned complexity found at the molecular, cellular, or systems level of living organisms. Moreover, it fails to explain how these layers of design came to operate in perfect harmony with one another.
The story that’s told of the wonders of a Creation, molded and shaped by random processes, is as fantastic a tale as any penned by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, or anyone else for that matter. Yet, here we are, fully immersed in a fantasy world where chance is deemed more capable than God Himself. That’s because, all too often, we’ve allowed naturalistic assumptions to overshadow common sense. ...
To break this spell, we must shake off the stardust and reclaim our critical faculties. Rather than ascribing superpowers to randomness, we must recognize it for what it truly is: a rudderless, reckless, chaotic force, as incapable of producing the complexities of the human brain as a tornado is of constructing a jumbo jetliner capable of flight.
"in the beginning, God ..." (Genesis 1:1).
"For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him" (Colossians 1:16, ESV).