Preacher's Piece

The story goes how the teacher instructed her students to pass their essay papers forward so she could collect them. The students dutifully did as they were told, except for one little boy, who walked up to her desk and handed the teacher his pencil.

“What’s this,” she asked?

“It’s my essay,” he responded.

“This is your pencil,” she said.

“Yes,” he said, “but my essay is inside that pencil. You just need to get it out of there.”

If this column were a sermon, I would say here that I’ve decided to start a new series today. It will be about people I’ve met over the years in my life, and the endur...