Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/monkeybusinessimages
Anecdotes are short, catchy stories, the kind pastors and public speakers insert in just-the-right-spot to pep up a message. The word comes from the Greek and literally means “things not given out.” In other words, “unpublished.”
Winston Churchill called anecdotes “the gleaming toys of history.”
They are hard to define, but we all know a good one when we find one. Here are a few of my favorite stories that may fit somewhere in just the right spot in one of your sermons one day. I’ve enjoyed every one of them.
1. Unusual Wisdom
During the 1957 World Series between the Milwaukee Braves and the New York Yankees, slugger Hank Aaron came up to bat. Yogi Berra, the Yankee catcher, noticed he was holding the bat wrong. “Turn it around,” he told Aaron. “So you can read the trademark.” That’s the usual wisdom on how to hold a bat. Hank never looked back, but said, “Didn’t come up here to read. Came up here to hit.”
And brother, did he ever.
2. Embracing the Downs
A patient afflicted with chronic depression called on the famous British physician John Abernethy. After examining him, Dr. Abernethy said:
“You need amusement. Go down to the playhouse and hear the comedian Grimaldi. He will make you laugh and that will be better for you than any drugs.”
The patient said, “I am Grimaldi.”
Great comedy is said to emanate from great suffering.
3. Facing Life
Franklin Adams belonged to a poker club that counted among its members an actor named Herbert Ransom. It was said that whenever Ransom was dealt a good hand, you could tell it in his face. In light of that, Adams proposed a new club rule: “Anyone who looks at Ransom’s face is cheating.”
What does your face reveal about you?
Photo Credit: GettyImages/Terry Vine
4. Hands Up
For the first half of the 20th century, George Ade was a popular humorist and playwright. Once, after delivering an after-dinner speech that went over well, a famous lawyer followed him to talk with him.
He thrust his hands deep in the pockets and said, “Doesn’t it strike you as a little unusual that a professional humorist should actually be funny?” When the laughter subsided, George Ade said, “Doesn’t it strike you as a little unusual that a lawyer should actually have his hands in his own pockets?”
And what are your hands doing these days?
5. Aging Well
I’ve told this one to whatever doctor was examining me at the moment. Konrad Adenauer, chancellor of West Germany when he was in his 90s, was being examined by his doctor. “I’m not a magician,” the medical man said. “I cannot make you younger.”
“I haven’t asked you to,” said the chancellor. “All I want is to go on getting older.”
I know the feeling. I turned 80 recently.
6. Pride Check
Greek general and politician Alcibiades was telling Pericles, who was 40 years older than he, how to govern Athens effectively. Pericles was not amused. “Alcibiades,” he said, “when I was your age, I talked just as you do now.”
The younger man said, “How I should like to have known you when you were at your best.”
When are you at your best?
7. Considering the King
Another kingdom had just been conquered by Alexander the Great’s mighty army. The defeated king, Porus of India, was brought before Alexander and asked how he would like to be treated.
He said, “I would like to be treated like a king.” Alexander said, “Do you have nothing else to request?” Porus said, “Nothing. For everything is comprehended in the word ‘king.’”
Alexander restored all the lands of Porus to him.
Alexander was a sucker for a great line.
What connects best with you? Think of all that is implied and included in “King of Kings.”
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/qingwa
8. Mindset
A friend of Muhammad Ali grew tired of his boasts and claims about being the greatest. He said, “How are you at golf?” Ali said, “I’m the best. I just haven’t played it yet.”
Does your mouth write checks you can’t cash?
9. Who Is Your God?
The radio comedian Fred Allen was noted for his off-the-cuff witticisms. Once he appeared on The Tonight Show, hosted by Jack Paar, who idolized him. Paar gushed, “You are my God!” Allen said, “Five thousand churches in New York and you have to be an atheist!”
Who is your God?
10. Creating or Criticizing?
Once a script for a proposed show was returned to Fred Allen from his bosses at the network. Blue pencil notes were everywhere, with suggestions to delete this and change that. Allen looked at it and said, “Where were you fellows when the paper was blank?”
Anyone can criticize; few can create.
11. Beyond Graves
My friend Don Davidson tells of a father and son who were driving past the cemetery one evening. Workers had dug a grave for a funeral to be held the next day. Seeing the open grave, the child called out, “Look dad! One got away.”
That’s our Resurrection message, isn’t it? Paul calls our risen Lord “the first fruits of those who sleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).
12. Helping
When Bob Dole was serving in the U. S. Senate, his wife Elizabeth headed up the Department of Transportation in the Reagan administration. All the newsmagazines ran stories about this powerful Washington marriage.
A photo accompanying one article showed them making up the bed together. Some man wrote Dole to complain. “You’ve got to stop doing the work around the house. You’re causing problems for men across the country.”
Bob Dole wrote back, “You don’t know the half of it. The only reason she was helping was because they were taking pictures.”
You helping anyone these days?
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/DigitalVision
13. Purpose and Pain
Hans Christian Andersen wrote all those fairy tales (“The Ugly Duckling,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” etc). Despite having a great respect for children, he never married. At the age of 70, he died from liver cancer.
Friends found him in bed, his hands holding a farewell letter written 45 years earlier by the only woman he had ever loved.
Sometimes unhappiness in one’s personal life seems to play a role in making the person more creative and productive in other ways. Ask Jane Austen.
14. Where Do You Stand?
When Archimedes was demonstrating his new invention called the lever, someone asked how much one could potentially move with such a contraption. He answered, “Give me a place to stand and I will move the world.”
Elton Trueblood wrote an excellent book on the Christian faith called A Place to Stand.
15. Worry-Free
New Orleans native Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, after whom that city’s airport is named, was asked if it bothered him that so many musicians copy his style.
“Not really,” he said. “A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa, but people still line up to see the original.”
16. Wonder
While we’re on the subject of Armstrongs, how about Neil, the astronaut. He was chatting with some famous travelers, picking their brains on countries they had visited. “But Mr. Armstrong,” they said, “you’ve walked on the moon. We want to hear about your travels.”
He said, “But that’s the only place I’ve been.”
17. Holy Ground
When Neil Armstrong (said to be a devout Christian) was visiting the Holy Land, he asked his guide if it was certain that Jesus had walked these very steps up to the Temple Mount. Assured that He must have, Armstrong said, “Then I have to tell you, I am more excited stepping on these stones than I was stepping on the moon.”
I’ve been there (to Israel, not the moon) and know the feeling.
18. Worth It
Someone asked diplomat Warren Austin if he ever got tired of the debates in the United Nations that droned on and on. “Yes,” he answered, “but it is better for old diplomats to be bored than for young men to die.”
A lot of good things have come out of boring talks. And more than a few boring sermons.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Vadym Terelyuk
19. Symphony of Life
Sir Thomas Beecham, the British conductor, was irritating a friend on the elevator by whistling a tune from Mozart. “Must you do that?” the friend said. Beecham answered, “You may be able to hear only my whistling, but I can hear the full orchestra.”
I love that story because that is precisely what I was doing during my teenage years while whistling or singing in the field all day long, as I plowed my mule Toby. I could hear the quartet or the choir singing along with me, never just my own voice.
Years later, when I heard my naked voice on tape and realized there was no choir or orchestra backing me up, I dropped the singing and stuck with whistling.
What do you hear when you sing?
20. Speaking Of
A friend of Alfred Hitchcock told this one on the famous director. They were on an elevator and engaging in idle chit-chat. The lift stopped and a man and woman got on.
“So,” Hitchcock said to his friend—as though he had been in the middle of a story, “I leaned over the corpse to see if he was dead, and pulled the knife out of him. I wiped it on my trousers and placed it back in the kitchen drawer. I walked out the back door, caught a bus on the corner, and heard no more about it.”
The elevator stopped and everyone got off. As Hitch walked away with his friend, he said, “Now, they will talk about that for the rest of their lives!”
What will you be talking about for the rest of your life?
I love a good story. You too?
The only thing I like better than hearing a good story is to have the honor of telling it. I will buy an expensive book of anecdotes for one story worth telling and retelling for the rest of my life—and consider it a bargain.
Evangelist Dwight L. Moody used to say he would walk a mile for a great story any time.
Some of the stories above came from the huge Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes edited by Clifton Fadiman. It contains thousands of stories, all of them memorable and many of which will make great sermon illustrations.
When a church member criticized my sermons for containing too many stories, I said, “Mark 4:34 says Jesus never taught without telling stories. So, I have a good role model.
Joe McKeever has been a disciple of Jesus Christ more than 65 years, been preaching the gospel more than 55 years, and has been writing and cartooning for Christian publications more than 45 years. He blogs at www.joemckeever.com.