You see it in every restaurant bathroom you go to: “Employees must wash their hands before returning to work.” I’ve even seen detailed instructions in bathrooms as to how to wash one’s hands properly! In 1546 Italian physician and scholar Girolamo Fracastoro first suggested that unseen “germs” were the cause of infectious diseases, and the idea that germs caused sickness. But they couldn’t “see” the germs, so it would be years later…

“Hey, I know that boy. I’ve known him my whole life. Who does he think he is?” I confess, it hurt a bit. You see, I was preaching one of my first “sermons” and some “friend” of the family who had, actually, known me and my parents since I was a baby, was a bit put out at my sermon topic. I don’t even remember what it was now, but I do…

He looked at me right in the face and said the words I will never forget: “When you’re ready to ‘sell all you have’ to have this faith, then, and only then will you be ready!” Whoa, wait a minute, let’s talk about this! Everything? Yep, everything. It was a turning point in my own spiritual journey and I was having to confront my own desire to “play it safe” or not…