The rich really do steal candy from babies (and other illustrations from the web)

Here are four interesting reads from the last week.

1. Apparently the old saying is true, the rich really are more likely to steal candy from babies. The Huffington Post reports on a study published by the National Academy of Sciences that shows the wealthy are more likely to engage in unethical behavior than the poor including, yes, taking candy from babies.
2. It's an undeniable truth that many college students leave the faith during their early twenties. Is higher education the cause? Experts weigh in a USA Today article. The resounding answer is that the true problem is to be found in a "lack of 'a robust faith,' strongly committed parents and an essential church connection." 
3. What do high profile apologies have to teach us about our own acts of contrition? Chuck Warnock explores the possibilities in his blogpost "Why Rush Limbaugh's apology fails" over at Confessions of a Small Church Pastor
4. Many preachers also serve as supervisors of employees. A tongue-in-cheek article from the WashingtonPost explores the best ways for a supervisor to "completely, utterly destroy an employee's work life."

Illustration-a-day: I knew what to do once we got there.

We are often asking God for directions concerning what comes next in our lives. We want to know ahead of time what's going to happen and how we're going to get there. Much to our chagrin, this is not how life often presents itself. Most of our lives come at us unexpectedly.

That's really not as big of a deal as it seems. As a kid, I had no idea how to get anywhere and yet I still managed to get there. How? I jumped in the back seat and went for the ride. As a child, it wasn't up to me to know how to get places - it was, however, up to me to know what to do once I got there.

I think of a ministry our youth group had. We called it HOP (Helping Older People). The youth minister drove us around to older people’s houses. I didn’t know how to get there but I knew what to do when we got there (mow their yards). In the same way, we might not know when or how the road to the future will unfurl but as believers we should know what to do along the way. Constantly asking, “Are we there yet” will not speed up the trip. And it may actually distract from perhaps a better question, “What are we here for?”

- The Short Preacher