Illustrations Archives

• Good News, Bad News  (November 12, 2007)
  "This house," said the real estate salesman, "has both its good points and its bad points. To show you I'm honest, I'm going to tell you about both. The disadvantages are that there is a chemical plant one block south and a slaughterhouse a block north...
• Aging  (November 9, 2007)
  "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?" (Satchel Paige)
• Happiness, Consumerism  (November 7, 2007)
  Economist Richard Layard believes that although people are getting wealthier and living more comfortably, they?re not getting happier. He argues in Happiness: Lessons from a New Science that a ?zero-sum game of competition for money and status has gripped rich societies, and that this rate race is a big source of unhappiness...
• Genuine Success  (November 1, 2007)
  In his book Quiet Strength, Tony Dungy, head coach of the Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts, wrote of what was in his mind with 45 seconds to go before his team won the Super Bowl...
• Stewardship  (November 1, 2007)
  There is an ancient story about a man who hid his gold by burying it at the foot of a tree. Every week he used to dig it up and admire it. A thief noticed this routine and dug up the gold and ran off with it...
• Stewardship  (November 1, 2007)
  There is an ancient story about a man who hid his gold by burying it at the foot of a tree. Every week he used to dig it up and admire it. A thief noticed this routine and dug up the gold and ran off with it...
• Sobriety  (November 1, 2007)
  The ?Ripley?s Believe It or Not? column told recently of some men from Queensland, Australia, who, in June of 2007, sailed fifty miles down the Brisbane River on a boat made of beer cans...
• Sin  (November 1, 2007)
  In a recent ?Wizard of Id? comic strip, the watchman calls out, ?Who goes there?? A voice in the darkness answers back, ?I?m a man of the cloth looking for sinners.? The watchman countered, ?Well, you?ve come to the right place.?
• Selflessness  (November 1, 2007)
  In the year 1833, a cholera plague killed 500 citizens of Lexington, Ky., in a two-month period. Half the city fled in fear. A man named William ?King? Solomon stayed behind to bury the dead...
• Prayer  (November 1, 2007)
  According to an old story attributed to Aesop, a man married off his two daughters. One married a gardener, and the other married a brick maker...
• Love, Sacrifice  (November 1, 2007)
  According to a recent news story, a man in Bakersfield, Calif. began walking 150 miles to Los Angeles to prove his love...
• Hope  (November 1, 2007)
  The New Book of Lists claims that the Cape of Good Hope is a misnomer. When Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Dias came around the southern tip of Africa, he found the sea so rough that he called it the Cape of Storms...
• Eternal Life  (November 1, 2007)
  Sir William Russell was sentenced to death and while on the scaffold, he handed his watch to a friend and said, ?I shall not need this any longer. From now on I shall be dealing with eternity.? The truth is that all of us, every day, are dealing with eternity.
• Compassion  (November 1, 2007)
  Senator and presidential candidate John McCain tells of an experience he had as a POW in North Vietnam. At the infamous prison called the Hanoi Hilton, McCain had been tied up in a way to create maximum pain...
• Christmas, Gifts  (November 1, 2007)
  An African boy listened carefully as his teacher explained why Christians give presents to each other on Christmas day. ?The gift is an expression of our joy over the birth of Jesus and our friendship for each other,? she said...
• Christmas  (November 1, 2007)
  A little girl, dressed as an angel in a Christmas pageant was told to come down the center aisle. The child asked, ?Do you want me to walk or fly?? You feel as though she almost could have flown. Don?t ever lose the wonder and mystery of Christmas...
• Baptism  (October 30, 2007)
  A mother looked out a window and saw Johnny playing church with their three kittens. He had them lined up and was preaching to them. The mother turned around to do some work, but soon she heard meowing and scratching on the door...
• Work  (October 29, 2007)
  There is an old fable from Aesop about a man who called his sons to his sick bed. "I am about to die," he said. "In my vineyard lies a treasure. Dig and you will find it." Not long after that, the man dies. The sons busily went to work digging in the vineyard. After they finished their repeated digging, they concluded there was no ...
• Spiritual Growth  (October 27, 2007)
  "The devil will let a preacher prepare a sermon if it will keep him from preparing himself."
• Assumptions, Confusion  (October 23, 2007)
  It was the first day of school. As the principal made his rounds, he heard a terrible commotion coming from one of the classrooms. He rushed in and spotted one boy, taller than the others, who seemed to be making the most noise...