Recently, I came aross 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.
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)
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Steve Lawson preached a sermon specifically about the foolishness of preaching at the Ligonier National Conference this year. I think I was the only AG member in attendance (grin), but it was held at an AG church! The sermon was geared toward expository preaching. He is an excellent expository preacher himself.
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