7 illustrations from Casey Graham of the Rocket Company

Here are seven interesting stories to save in your files, along with a quick thought on how you could leverage the story in a message.

1. A Texas police officer writes a ticket, but folded a $100 bill inside the citation.  Read the story about grace.  God gives us a great gift, even though we are guilty.
2. Wikepedia, the free encyclopedia that everyone writes, put the mega-staffed, super-popular Microsoft Encarta out of business.  Read the Wikepedia article about Wikepedia and remind your congregation that everybody is better than somebody.
3. Chinese bamboo produces little outward growth for the first four years of its life. Though it’s puny and pitiful, there’s something powerful happening underground.  In the fifth year, the tree grows eighty feet!  We must cultivate our soul and understand that the root comes before the fruit.
4. Starbucks reclaimed four shipping containers and made a pretty cool store.  They say the containers are “reclaimed, refurnished, renewed and revived.” Sounds like what God does in our hearts.
5. There’s a 99.99% soundproof room in Minneapolis that holds the Guinness World’s Record for being the quietest place on earth.  NASA rents it to train astronauts.  Reminds me of what could happen when we heed the words of Psalm 46:10 and be still.
6. Duffy Daughtery was the football coach for the Michigan State Spartans from 1954 to 1972.  At the end of one game, Daughtery sent in his kicker to win the game.  As the kick sailed through the uprights, the kicker looked at the referee.  Why?  Because he had forgotten his contact lens and couldn’t see!  Though he couldn’t see the goalposts, he’d practiced the kick so many times, it was routine.  This story might work great in a message on spiritual disciplines, Bible reading, consistent community or parenting.
7. A famous violinist named Joshua Bell once played for 45 minutes in a Washington DC Metro station. Though he paid a $3 Million violin and had sold out a Boston theater just two nights before, only six people stopped to listen to his music.  What a great story to illustrate that we should never take people for granted.