Day2
Word Study
Sacrifice- dead vs living
The Stories of John, Shelia & A Man In The Field
Before we go any further this morning, I want to tell you about two people. We’ll call them John and Sheila. They don’t know each other.
John’s Story
John and his wife are young, have one child, and live on the east coast. John’s a history buff. He has furnished his home with antiques from the Civil War era, and he’s always on the hunt for more.
John heard about a home for sale in the deep South, that was built in the mid-1800s, and the asking price was $200,000. Not only that, but the house was full of Civil War-era furniture that was to be included in the sale. John and his wife had only been married for two years, and they didn’t have a lot of extra income, but he couldn’t resist the idea, so he got in his car and drove several hundred miles to see this home.
Not surprisingly, a lot of other people had the same idea, and they were milling about in the home and yard. John went in and immediately began identifying which furniture was actually antique and which were reproductions. He was satisfied and pretty excited to see that most of the furniture was authentic. The house was crowded, and the thought occurred to him to check out the basement.
Opening the door to the stairwell that reached down into the darkness, John found a switch to a single light bulb that hung at the bottom of the stairs, and walked down. The light of that bulb was insufficient to light the entire basement, so he waited for his eyes to adjust and then began looking around. He spied a roll-top desk, covered in dust and cobwebs, brushed it off and slid open the top.
He remembered that many old desks of that era had hidden drawers or compartments, so he began feeling around until he found a drawer with a false bottom. He opened it, reached inside, and far in the back he felt a leather pouch. Pulling it out, he opened it and found ten gold Confederate coins. He knew immediately that they would be worth millions. So he returned the pouch and the coins to the secret compartment, closed everything up, went back upstairs and called his wife…
Sheila’s Story
Then there’s Sheila. Sheila is a 30-something single woman who works as a free-lance artist. She’s on a road-trip vacation in the Midwest. Driving through a quaint little town she notices a sign for a community fundraiser at the local elementary school. Something tugs at her so she pulls up, parks and goes inside. There are all of the predictable items being sold: baked goods, crafts, farm produce and the like. But she also notices that at the front of the room on an easel is a Picasso reproduction that is for sale for $25,000.
Sheila’s master’s degree had focused on 20th century artists, with a special concentration on the works of Pablo Picasso. So she walked over and was informed that the reason the price was so high is that the quality of the reproduction was itself so high. But, she was told, it clearly was not an authentic Picasso because the artist had simply scribble his initials rather than signing as Picasso would have done.
Sheila stopped and thought for a moment and remembered from her studies that in the first year in which Picasso’s work was made public, he had not signed his full name, but in fact had only scribbled his initials. So she reached into her purse, pulled out a magnifying glass, and because of her training quickly realized that this was either an incredibly masterful reproduction, or an original Picasso, worth millions. She was living at the time from hand to mouth, and the $25,000 asking price was far more than she could reasonably afford. Or was it?
Sheila took out pen and paper and began calculating. She concluded that she would have to sell her entire personal collection, and her older Volkswagen Jetta which she loved, and empty her bank account to afford the purchase of the painting. What if it was in fact only a reproduction? But if it was the real thing…
What should John do? What should Sheila do? To answer the question, each one would have to weigh both the risks and the rewards. How would you advise them?
What would you do?
Action Step:
What is your most prized possession?
Would you sell it for a chance at a greater treasure?
Tomorrow we will visit the man in the fields’ story.
Action Step:
Listen to this podcast
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