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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for December 7, 2009
“And There They Are – The Nouns”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
What do you call that thing on your car door that keeps it from swinging open and bashing the car next to you?
No, it’s not the hinge.
And you know how the door will open part way and kind of stop? What does that?
Well, whatever it’s called, it was broken on my mother-in-law’s car.
So I called Napa and the guy didn’t know.
Actually, on the internet, I did find a name: the “door check.”
“A ‘door check?’” said Mr. Napa. “Never heard of it.”
Now I’m no mechanic, but this finally gave me the excuse to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.
There’s this place called Pick-n-Pull, which is basically a car junk yard. You pay a dollar, sign a release, get your hand stamped, and off you go. They turn you loose with your tools to go find whatever parts you want and you actually get to “extract” them yourself.
Maybe it’s the little boy in me, but who wouldn’t want to go rip pieces off of cars?
The woman behind the counter knew everything about car parts, answering everyone’s questions . . except mine. “A ‘door check?’ Never heard of it.”
So I went out on the lot and found the twin to my mother-in-law’s car, and wouldn’t you know it. The driver’s door was half ripped off. It was just hanging by . . . guess what. The door check.
But it looked fine, so I extracted it, which was great fun. I took it back to the woman and, honestly, I think she just picked a random price of $5, and . . . what on earth? Where is my bank card?
Oh great. I put on my grungy work clothes and I forgot to . . . oh well, I knew my daughter was nearby so I called her to come pay for me.
And while I waited I looked around the office where they were selling things people left in their junk cars, and I picked up a book called “The Practical Writer.”
It included an essay by David Long which began like this. Now if you are a writer or a pastor or teacher or anyone involved in communicating, listen to how he started this essay. Here’s what he said.
“I’m reading along and realize I’ve lost the thread of the sentences – maybe I’m drowsy, maybe the writing has become bogged down in abstraction. I skip ahead, wanting something solid to light on. And there they are, the nouns…”
What a great line! “And there they are – the nouns.”
How much is this book? One dollar?
“Too much,” I think. “A quarter, maybe.”
So I kept reading. “A book should consist of examples,” he says.
“That’s so true,” I think, and the value of the book goes up.
Then he says, “How alert we become at the sound of: for instance…”
Oh my goodness! That is so true! How many times has my mental screen saver come on during a sermon, only to be brought back by the words “for instance” or “let me illustrate”?
We can only take so much abstraction, and then we want concrete. We want stories. We want people and places and things. We want the nouns.
This especially happens when we are sharing spiritual truths and biblical doctrine. I’ve seen people bloviate on and on about some deep spiritual truth and nobody gets it. Nobody’s even paying attention anymore because it’s a boat load of abstraction.
Pastors, as soon as you see those eyes glaze over, it’s time to illustrate. It’s time to bring it home, paint a mental picture, engage the theatre of the mind. It’s time to bring on the nouns.
Jesus was the expert at this. He could have talked for hours about the abstract “love your neighbor,” but instead he told a simple story full of nouns, the story of the Good Samaritan.
In the Great Commission, in Matthew 28, Jesus said to go and make disciples, and to teach people to obey everything He commanded.
We are to communicate God’s truth, but you know what? Have we really communicated if the people don’t get it?
Well it’s our job to communicate clearly, to bring it out of the abstract. Jesus set the example with His many stories and parables and illustrations.
It’s easy to say, “Follow Jesus,” but it’s the stories that bring it home. It’s the testimonies of people who did.
And it’s not just for preachers and teachers. This is for all of us. We are all called to make disciples and share the faith.
And we can do that more effectively by making it concrete, by sharing the stories, by including people and places and things.
We do that by bringing on the nouns.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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