Comedian Jerry Seinfeld recently wrote a book titled Is This Anything? The book chronicles his comedy over the years. Seinfeld specializes in observational humor. He looks at things he sees, and listens to things he hears and wonders the same thing about each sight and sound—Is this anything? In other words, is this something that is amusing? Can I take this and turn it into a bit of comedy that will make the audience laugh?

This inquisitive approach to everyday life is also beneficial to those who teach and preach the Bible. Jesus often started conversations with the phrase “The kingdom of heaven is like…” Then he would refer to common practices of human beings or typical occurrences in nature and point out how those things were similar to life in the kingdom.

Jesus used a lot of stories and illustrations in his teaching and preaching. If we want to present the Word of God effectively, we would do well to follow his example in this regard. We should always be looking at what we see around us and consider if it could be used to help show others what it means to live for Jesus. The question should always be on our minds—Is this anything?

“With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable…”—Mark 4:33-34.