"Good minds have purposes; others have wishes." Washington Irving

   The reason Huckleberry Finn has endured as one of the great works of American literature is that Twain wrote the truth so powerfully. For example, he had Huck report to us things like this: "Next Sunday we all went to church…The men took their guns along…It was pretty ornery preaching – all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness."

   Preaching really is tiresome. I have listened to a lot and done more than my share (as the Journal indicates.)

   We may feel inspired in the moments during and right after a sermon or speech. But, the impact is notoriously short-lived. 

   As Huck says after the preacher finishes, "…everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to say about faith, and good works, and free grace, and preforeordestinsation, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet."

   You have probably spent a lot of time during a speech dreaming and wishing that your dreams would come true. How does that happen?

   It is when you listen to Irving and focus on purposes instead of wishes that your life advances. But, that is just me doing ornery preaching.

  What are your purposes? What are your new goals? What do you need to do to realize those goals?

-Erie Chapman, Nashville