[timio]

Ok, here's the deal with this... We're supposed to do a Most Successful person speech for one of my classes and I don't measure success, really... So I decided to try and witness to the class, which should be fun, so here's my speech on Cassie Bernall, the most successful person I can think of who people may know.... Suggestions/comments/edits/additions/dropoffs would be greatly welcome by this weekend!

Thanks!

Tim

----

April 20, 1999, Littleton, Colorado. Columbine High school. A peaceful school with on just a normal day. Suddenly, the peace turns to chaos. Gunmen enter the school and start shooting. They get to the library, and see one girl praying with a Bible open in front of her. One asks: “Do you believe in God?”
Silence.
She says “Yes” and they kill her on the spot.

Cassie Bernall was an ordinary girl who had trusted her faith with God. Little did she know that her child-like faith would have the power to effect many people’s lives. Had she no faith and her answer would not have been the same. She had a positive attitude in knowing that no matter the cost, her answer would be a testimony of her lifestyle to all those around. She had a passion for Jesus Christ, and she was showing it by reading her Bible and praying at the time of the shooting. Her purpose was simple: to follow God’s will for her no matter the cost. She could have ducked when the shooter put the gun to her head, but she stood firm, in persistence that her faith would help her through.

Her faith kept her alive, not in the physical sense, but the Spiritual sense. Now she lives beside her maker, in Heaven above because she stood firm in the faith, despite the circumstances. Cassie was successful in God’s plan for her. The faith that she had, however small, made her a success.

[Darrin]

looks good to me... when is it due?

[timio]

Here's my 2nd version... I don't know what I'm gonna do... I'm getting worried.

It's due monday, most likely.

Tim
----


How do you measure success? Is it by the equity that a person has, or is it by accomplishments in life? There’s many ways to measure it, but which one is the right? Is a successful person supposed to feel like they are on top of the world, or know that they’ve accomplished what they set out to do?

But then, I come to the conclusion: Who am I to measure success? Isn’t that judging someone against others? If I choose one person, then the others would feel left out. If I chose them all, then they wouldn’t feel special, so how do I choose one success?

So how can I define success in order to choose one person against another? Maybe I don’t want to do that, just to make everyone feel special.

But as I think about it, everyone’s a success in their own little way. We all have triumphs in life, but along with triumphs come the many failures that brought us to that point. The only way that we can conquer a task is to persist and keep on trying. When we fall down, we need to get up and continue on with life.

[Nevada Dave]

My thought, having survived Public Speaking, is this:

Do pick a measure of success to use. People do fall into a spectrum of achievment, and to avoid the topic will probably hurt your score.

I like the idea of the Cassie speech, with a little refinment I think it could really fly.

Another idea: Dr. Paul Brand. An associate of Phillip Yancey who is a M.D. who grew up in India with his missionary parents, then attended school in India, and split the rest of his life between India and the U.S. working with people who have leprosy. He made huge medical achievments in dealing with leprosy, including revolutionary surgeries to restore use of hands and feet that had been ravaged by the disease.

But beyond that, he impacted lives. One person recalled him as the first doctor who dared to touch the infected feet of one patient. Another man, so touched by Dr. Brand's selflessness and loving spirit hung a picture of him on the wall with a caption "May the spirit that lives in him live in me."

Here is a man who was a successful doctor, helping those in need. But he was also a man who touched individual lives.

If you can get your hands on a copy of the book Soul Survivor by Yancey, Dr. Brand has a chapter dedicated to him. (I reccomend the book on its own merit, though)

[timio]

We need to incorporate the 6 p's of success into this speech because that's what the teacher says...

Power, Passion, Persistance, Positive Attitude, Purpose and... another P...

It's due Monday, so I'll probably do the Cassie Speech... someone said it was morbid, but I don't really think so because it's talking about how her life effected thousands...