Doing One Thing Right Charles Malik, Lebanese ambassador to the United Nations, asked in a speech: “What has been the greatest American contribution to the rest of the world? Has it been money? Has it been food? Has it been medical skill? Has it been military might? Has it been industrial know-how?” Then he answered:…
Author: Alan Holden
Ministry
What Is a Parable? Let me offer a few thoughts on illustrations. Illustration is an art with three purposes. First, its purpose is to find the listener, and second, to help the listener find the speaker. It is like a bridge. Third, an illustration establishes contact between the listener and the text, so that a…
Middle Age
Couples Apart Middle age is that time of life when a man will let his wife go anywhere as long as she doesn’t insist on his coming along. Really Fast Forget about jets, racing cars, and speed boats. Nothing goes as fast as middle age. Sinning in Middle Age Middle age is when you have…
Mercy
The Full Range of God’s Music I used to go out in the morning to get the paper when we lived in El Paso. Our house was a good four miles from the main parade ground at Fort Bliss. On most mornings, I could hear the whump, whump, whump of the thirteen-gun salute which was…
Maturity
The Opposite of Steward Is Victim In his book, The Search for Power, Harvard Professor David C. McClelland contends that there are four stages in the development of the individual to maturity: Stage 1: Power is perceived as coming from others, but is directed toward oneself. Stage 2: Power is perceived as residing within oneself,…
Materialism
Prudent Romance No woman marries for money; they are all clever enough, before marrying a millionaire, to fall in love with him first. –Cesare Pavese Sending It on Ahead Sigmund Freud’s favorite story was about the sailor shipwrecked on one of the South Sea islands. He was seized by the natives, hoisted to their shoulders,…
Marriage
Nothing Sacred Marriage used to be a contract. Now many regard it as a ninety-day option. Unlucky Man He’s been unlucky in both his marriages. His first wife left him and his second wife hasn’t. The Wages of Sin Is Stupidity Ann Landers received a letter from a woman who had broken off an affair…
Love
Living Nobly To act well in the world, one must die within oneself. Man is not on this earth only to be happy, he is not there to be simply honest, he is there to realize great things for humanity, to attain nobility and to surpass the vulgarity in which the existence of almost all…
Loneliness
The Lonely in the Crowd A few years ago, the press carried a heartrending story of a young father who shot himself in a tavern telephone booth. James Lee had called a Chicago newspaper and told a reporter he had sent the paper a manila envelope outlining his story. The reported frantically tried to trace…
Listening
Strategy for People The only way to entertain some folks is to listen to them. –Kin Hubbard The Need for Balance Somewhere we know that without silence, words lose their meaning, that without listening, speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure. –Henri Nouwen Basic Requirements for Communication Two men were talking one…