Picture This

Who would have thought that Eastman Kodak, the company that invented the hand held camera and brought the world the first pictures from the moon could fail?  And yet back in January Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection.  For over a hundred years the name Kodak has been synonymous with photography, so what happened?  In an era where people are taking exponentially more photos than ever before,  how could a photography company possibly go bankrupt?  Because they were slow to embrace change. 

Kodak was convinced that their product was so superior to the new digital technology that they would always have a customer base.  And while they were busy patting themselves on their back and congratulating themselves for their faithfulness to that which was old, the new passed them by.  The core principle hadn’t changed. People still wanted to take pictures, but how they were taking pictures was changing. Digital cameras slowly overtook film technology and the sad part was that Kodak had invented the first digital camera but didn’t see a future for it.

I wonder what the church can learn from Kodak?  How long will we continue to offer film to a digital world?  There will always be those who prefer film, but eventually. . .
Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.

One Million Dollars

If you were buying a microwave and vacuum cleaner from Wal-Mart, would you try and pay for your $476.00 purchase using a million dollar bill?  Probably not, but police say Michael Anthony Fuller insisted he could pay for his vacuum cleaner and microwave oven with a $1-million bill.

Fuller insisted the bill was real but the problem is, that there is no such thing as a million dollar bill.  Police later arrested Fuller and charged him with attempting to obtain property by false pretence and uttering a forged instrument.  Apparently million dollar frauds aren’t as uncommon as you might think.  Just this this past summer, a Pennsylvania man was charged with trying to use a fake $1 million bill to purchase marijuana.  I wonder who complained?

We don’t know where Mr. Fuller obtained the bill, but he seemed to be quite convinced that his money was real and he was sincere in his belief, but that didn’t make the bill any more real. 

There are all kinds of folks out there who will try to use the spiritual equivalent of a million dollar bill to gain eternal life, and it doesn’t matter how sincere they are in their belief, it won’t make their beliefs anymore real. Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.