Sermon Illustrations

Construction Worker Survives 110-Foot Fall

This past week I was reading in “God’s Word for You Today” devotional about Randy Reid, a thirty-four-year old construction worker, who was welding on top of a nearly completed water tower outside Chicago. According to writer Melissa Ramsdell, Reid unhooked his safety gear to reach for some pipes when a metal cage slipped and bumped the scaffolding on which he stood. It tipped, and Reid lost his balance. He fell 110 feet landing face down on a pile of dirt, just missing rocks and construction debris. A fellow worker called 911. When paramedics arrived they found Reid conscious, moving, and complaining of a sore back. Apparently the fall didn’t cost Reid his sense of humor. As paramedics carried him on a backboard to the ambulance, Reid had one request: “Don’t drop me.” (Doctors later said Reid came away from the accident with just a bruised leg.)

Sometimes we resemble Randy Reid. God projects us from harm in a 110-foot fall, yet we are not willing to trust Him to get us over the next two-foot hurdle.

From a sermon by Ray Ellis, Victory in Times of Crisis, 6/14/2010

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