Legacy Youth Ministry Resources

Illustration texts

Meaningless Life

"We may be in the Universe as dogs and cats are in our libraries, seeing the books and hearing the conversations, but having no inkling of the meaning of it all." (William James, the most widely read American philosopher of the 1900?s, in Pluralistic Universe, quoted in Reason Enough, by Clark Pinnock)

Carnegie on Teamwork

Andrew Carnegie believed his greatest strength in building US Steel was in hiring those people who not only would get the job done, but would work in perfect harmony together with a shared sense of mission. This "almost miraculous power unleashed when two or more people are working together in harmony toward a common goal," he called the "mastermind alliance." (Bottom Line, 3/92)

Mr. Coffee Popping Popcorn

Many people seem frustrated with life because they have never found their niche, why they are here and what they are here to accomplish. When you?re not being used for the purpose for which you were created, you get frustrated. Imagine a Mr. Coffee trying to pop popcorn, or a popcorn popper trying to make a good cup of cofee. Is it no wonder that life is often so frustrating for those who have chosen not to follow God?s plan for their lives. ? Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved

You Made Us For Yourself

?You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in You.? (Augustine, 4th cent. A.D.)

Make More Than A Splash

The people we often consider the movers and shakers of this world - the entertainers, sports heroes, and business successes -are often making a temporary spash that will be forgotten within a generation. Take this jar of water as an example. By shaking it vigorously (Shake it before the group, or, get a fish bowl and let a couple of people come up and splash around in it), I represent the big splash that many of today's stars, and many of our heroes, are making at the moment. But once that pretty model gets her first wrinkle, or the athlete begins to slow with age, the spotlight moves on and most are soon forgotten. (Stop shaking the jar.) Look at the water! Although we seemed to be making such a huge splash for a moment, now that the splash is over, we see that there's no evidence that we were ever even there. I'm not satisfied to make a temporary splash while I'm here. I desperately want to leave my mark, a mark that will last for eternity. The only way I can do that is to do God's work, in God's way. ? Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved

Coach Joe Gibbs on Purpose

"Without Christ, my life would be nothing. It would be an exercise in futility. I would be working day and night for things that would wind up in the trash can. You can live your life and end up leaving this earth forever separated from God and having your life count for nothing more than the money you've made or the goals you've achieved, or you can put your trust in the One who can make life really count." (1992 Superbowl Champion Washington Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs, in "Joe Gibbs: Fourth and One") ? Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved

Purposeless Existence For Unbeliever

"It seems to me that we're all in the same boat with Christopher Columbus. He didn't know where he was going when he started. When he got there he didn't know where he was, and when he got back he didn't know where he had been." (Jms. M. Brande)

Dobson and Purpose

"Don't try to build monuments to yourself or accumulate great wealth. Don't take yourself so seriously. This life all happens in the blink of the eye. Do what you can to serve the Lord, and be worthy of hearing those words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." And try to take as many people with you to heaven as you can, beginning with your own family. This is the core of my system of values." (Dr. James Dobson)

An Atheist's View Of Life

Bertrand Russell, one of the most well-known opponents of Christianity in our century, once wrote about the purposelessness of life for the atheist. He wrote, "That man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins - all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, ae yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand." (From his article, "A Free Man's Worship, pp, 106 and 107 of the compilation of articles entitled, Why I Am Not a Christian, by Russell) ? Copyright 2002 Steve Miller - All Rights Reserved

Success, But No Purpose

"I have had few difficulties, many friends, great successes; I have gone from wife to wife, and from house to house, visited great countries of the world, but I am fed up with inventing devices to fill up 24 hours of the day." (Cartoonist Ralph Barton, in his suicide note)

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