A Dark Pit in the Jungle

When I was a kid, there was a place that was, hands down, my favorite place on earth. It was a little yellow house in the mountains of western Massachusetts. But now, when I go back to that magical place, the joy is mixed with sorrow and it makes me long instead for another, better place.

It's easy to make peanut butter. Just grind up a bunch of peanuts and... Voila! But if you try to market and sell your peanut butter in the United States, you'll discover surprisingly strict regulations. In this episode, I'll tell you the surprising story behind some of those rules and the woman who helped make them a reality.

In 1828, veteran missionary Adoniram Judson left everyone and everything to move into a small hut deep in the jungle. But even when paralyzing grief drove Judson to the brink of despair, his life and ministry were not over. His story holds a lesson for us about the challenges of grief and how we can gently point others to the hope that is always available in God.

Did you know that the author of Sherlock Holmes believed in fairies? He even wrote a book about it, detailing the supposed photographing of fairies by a couple of girls in a small English town. But how could such a smart man be so gullible? This “fairy tale” holds a lesson for all of us about why we believe what we believe and how to guard against falling for lies.

How much would you pay for a pineapple? For aristocrats in 17th and 18th century England and France, money was no object when it came to having and displaying pineapples. I want to tell you how that happened and share a lesson about how we view God’s good gifts.