Sermon Illustrations
The United States of Metrics
A New York Times article observes that Americans measure everything. It says, "In the last few years, there has been a revolution so profound that it's sometimes hard to miss its significance. We are awash in numbers. Data is everywhere. Old-fashioned things like words are in retreat; numbers are on the rise. … We've become the United States of Metrics." We are so overwhelmed with data that in some ways we have become our own worst enemies.
"Big Brother isn't our big enemy anymore. It's Big Self. That hovering eye in the sky watching every move you make: It's you." Anne Lamott warns that this personal obsession with data takes away " … everything great and exciting that someone like me would dare to call grace. … What this stuff steals is our aliveness."
Possible Preaching Angle:
What do you measure? Your sleep, your steps, your good works, your spirituality? What would happen if you stopped keeping track and lived a life unencumbered by numbers (a life under the Law), and instead lived under the radical grace of Jesus?