1 CORINTHIANS 1:18
I came across this story and I am going to be using it in an upcoming sermon but I could not wait to share it.
It's the story of Ronald Mallet, a man who lost his father to a smoking related illness 53 years ago. When his father died, his lifelong quest began: to build a time machine that would enable him to travel into the past, see his father again, and warn him to change his lifestyle.
It sounds crazy, I know. If Ronald Mallet was a wild-eyed Emmet Brown type (that was Christopher Lloyd in the Back to the Future trilogy), it would be easy to laugh him off as a nutcase.
But he's nothing like Emmet Brown. He is a tenured theoretical physicist at the University of Connecticut, only the 79th African American to earn a doctorate in physics. Why did he choose physics? Because of his crazy dream: he wanted to find a way to travel through time, because he desperately wanted to see his father once again.
He hid his obsession hidden for decades, knowing that if the secret got out, he would become a laughingstock. So he worked at home each night in solitude, and along the way made some amazing discoveries -- discoveries that the academic community is beginning to pay attention to.
Read his story if you have time; it's fascinating. It also illustrates how there are many things that drive us to choose the career we choose -- and if the motive is strong enough, it can drive us to do the seemingly impossible.
I can't imagine devoting my life to something as crazy as time travel. Instead, I've devoted my life (we've devoted our lives) to something that many find crazier -- the foolishness of preaching.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
Our calling is not to rewrite the past but to rewrite the future. Our words can change a destiny; our work makes a difference for all eternity. So let's devote ourselves with the focus and determination to this foolish task.
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