Sermon Illustrations
Former Royal Sarah Ferguson Aims to Get Herself Right
Sarah Ferguson is an English ex-royal. Commonly called "Fergie" and well known to readers of tabloids, the red-haired former Duchess of York was married to Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth, from 1986 till their divorce in 1996.
Sarah found her place in the tabloids through missteps and scandals. Her Wikipedia biography says,
By 1991, the marriage was in trouble, and the couple had drifted apart. While her husband was away on naval or royal duties, the Duchess was frequently seen in the company of other men …. Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York finally announced their separation in 1992 ….
The Duchess endured widespread public ridicule contributing to her further estrangement from the British Royal Family. After four years of official separation, the Duke and Duchess announced the mutual decision to divorce in 1996.
A 2011 article about Sarah in The Week reported on her more recent troubles. She was caught trying to sell access to her former husband for $40,000. She nearly went bankrupt. And she received a painful royal snub: she was not among the 1,900 people invited to the 2011 royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Sarah did watch the wedding, however, and she says,
With Catherine going up the aisle, you know what went through my head? I feel like I've handed her the baton and said, "Well done. And you'll do it right." I didn't do it right, and now I am going to go get Sarah right."
In that pursuit, we can all identify with Sarah Ferguson. Sooner or later, we come to the point where we realize we've botched things up royally, and we need to fix not just a situation—we need to fix ourselves. And that raises one of the most important questions you'll ever try to answer: What do you do when you decide you're going to go get yourself right? How do you go about that? The world and our own sense of morality tells us one thing; the gospel tells us quite another.