Emphasis Preaching Journal

In a small town in western Iowa a rash of teenage suicides shook the community one spring. By the time of the third youth's funeral the pastor had gone past the "judge not" and the "God's infinite wisdom" stage and, instead, preached about the perils of having "too much too soon." The youths who had ended their lives had lacked for nothing. If anything, they had been overloaded with too many opportunities. Still they found life to be without direction, empty, and purposeless.