These are quotes which stood out to me, possibly for use in a sermon someday. Their presence here does not mean I agree with them, it merely shows that I might want to reference them later. The default view is five random selections. Use the tag list on the right to view all quotes relevant to that theme.
SCAM ALERT!
WARNING! PLEASE READ IMMEDIATELY!
THIS IS SERIOUS!
If you get an envelope from a company called the
"Internal Revenue Service," DO NOT OPEN
IT! This group operates a scam around this time
every year. Their letter claims that you owe
them money, which they will take and use to pay
for the operation of essential functions of the
United States government. This is untrue! The
money the IRS collects is used to fund various
inefficient and pointless social engineering
projects.
This organization has ties to another shady outfit
called the Social Security Administration, who
claim to take money from your regular
paychecks and save it for your retirement. In
truth, the SSA uses the money to pay for the
same misguided make-work projects the IRS
helps mastermind. These scam artists have
bilked honest, hard working Americans out of
billions of dollars. Don't be among them!
FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO
EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
If lawyers are disbarred
and clergymen defrocked,
doesn't it follow that. . .
electricians could be delighted,
musicians denoted,
cowboys deranged,
models deposed,
and dry cleaners depressed?
Wouldn't you expect laundry workers to decrease,
eventually becoming depressed and depleted?
Likewise, bedmakers might be debunked,
baseball players debased,
bulldozer operators degraded,
organ donors delivered,
software engineers detested, and
underwear manufacturers debriefed.
And won't all composers one day decompose?
On a more positive note, perhaps we can hope politicians will someday be devoted.
A man who ended his marriage will become his ex-wife's stepfather when he marries her mother.
George Greenhowe, 22, will marry Pat Smith, 44, in Arbroath, and his ex-wife Allison has agreed to act as bridesmaid.
The wedding will take place in the town's Register Office - the same venue for the wedding of Allison, 19, and George last year.
Until recently, the three lived under the same roof in Wardykes, Arbroath, says the Daily Record.
Allison only moved back in with her father, Allan, because there was no room in the council house she shared with her mum, ex-husband and pets, including an alsatian, five pups, two cats, a hamster and a parrot.
Pat says Allison has forgiven her for taking her husband. "Allison told us she hopes we are happy and she even calls my future husband her stepdad."
But Patricia Williamson, Pat's elderly mother, has disowned her daughter. She said: "I have completely washed my hands of my daughter. It is news to me that they are getting married. I certainly won't be going to the service and I don't know anyone from the family who will be attending."
A recent article in The New York Times (7/30/03) points out the growing interest among economists and other scholars in studying sports. Particularly, they are documenting the tendency for managers and coaches to avoid risk, even when the statistics reflect a greater likelihood of success than failure.
Writer David Leonhard observes, "Be it at Chicago, Duke, Harvard or the University of California at Berkeley, some of the nation's top economists, psychologists and statisticians are coming to see sports as a subject that requires their attention. Trying to understand human decision-making, they are writing papers about such choices as when to punt, or when to take out a basketball player in foul trouble . . . Their research is quickly leading to a theory that will resonate with any fans who have ever screamed for their team to go for it on fourth down: the professors say that managers, coaches and players are often far too cautious for their own good.
"Teams are averse to going for all or none," said Steven J. Sherman, a psychology professor at Indiana University . . . "Teams don't want to do something that puts the game on the line right now."
Leonhardt notes, "The professors say that coaches and managers often go awry when faced with a decision involving an obvious, yet ultimately sensible, risk. They seem to focus too much on the worst-case scenario: the Bonds home run, the game-ending brick, the failed fourth down." (Click here to read the full story; you may be asked to register before viewing the story.)
It's worth asking ourselves as church leaders: are there times when we miss hitting "home runs" in our work because of an inordinate fear of risk?
Impostor syndrome is rampant, especially among freshmen. Valedictorians go from the best of the best to just another straight-A kid in a place stuffed full of them. Basically everyone feels the clawing insecurity I did. To get into Stanford is to be told you are extraordinary among the high achievers and the strivers, it is treated as a value judgment on your worth as a person. Do you “deserve” to get in? people ask.
Nobody deserves to get into Stanford. The wealth, the opportunity, the concentrated resources—it’s impossible to say anyone at seventeen or eighteen is worthy of that. Because people frame acceptance as something you “earn,” they tie up far too much of their self-worth in a deeply flawed admissions process. In reality, getting into Stanford isn’t a “reward for all your hard work.” It’s an opportunity, a bit of very good luck. No one is entitled to admission; it is a chance that must be seized, not the goal in and of itself.