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Some years ago, I took my second trip on behalf of a youth ministry to South Africa. On the first trip, I remember how very lost I felt when I got to the airport. I'd been on an airplane for 18 wonderful hours. I got there late at night, I had no car, no directions. I didn't know anything about anywhere in the nation of South Africa.
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If you want to ask me the five greatest victories in my life, I'm not sure I can tell you what two, three, four or five would be. But I could sure tell you what number one would be - my wife! She was not an easy conquest, man. She was dating this other guy. I was after her long before she had any romantic thoughts about me. So I really had to work on this one. So I plotted ways to be with her, I plotted ways to impress her. I plotted ways to try to help her. Is this stalking? I'm not sure. But this is all under the heading "Oh, we have a brother and sister relationship." That's what it was.
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For many years now I've spent most of my summer working with Native American young people. So I was especially interested when I heard the touching story of an Indian chief who was chief during the time when tribes were still wandering tribes. He had a reputation for being a really great leader. In fact it was said that he was always just, but he was always loving. That was about to be severely tested, though, in a way he could have never dreamed.
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It seems to happen so many nights on the news, the anchorman or anchorwoman telling us there's been another school shooting. I remember the time it wasn't even a shooting. It was knives. A student rampaged through the halls of Franklin Regional High School. Two long knives left a trail of blood and 22 wounded victims - Murrysville, Pennsylvania. Yeah, another one they added to the list of schools nobody wants to be on. We know the names: Parkland, Newtown, and Fort Hood. And on and on it goes. Of course, starting with Columbine. Places where one angry person changes lives and families forever.
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Every once in a while Hollywood will get your hopes up, and then... you know. Yeah, like a few years ago they were going to make a movie about Noah and Noah's Ark. Yeah, Noah's Ark Rides Again! They were hoping it would bring in a flood of money. Well, the word was that the telling of this iconic story started with the Bible account, and then it added a very heavy dose of Hollywood imagination with great special effects. Probably no match, though, for the original. Now, with Noah showing up in TV ads, it kind of made me go back to the non-fiction, original narrative - I mean Bible-style.
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You know, some people who financially support Christian ministry also like to play golf. I don't happen to be one of them. If you'd seen the one time I did play golf, when I hit my partner in the head with a club, you would understand why I've been banned from golf courses.
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So, as you get close to the time of the wedding, you know, you've got to make the list of who you're going to invite and who you're not going to invite. So, almost every bride and groom with a lot of counsel from the parents, end up with two lists. Here's the people that make the cut and they're going to get invited, and these people...what they don't know won't hurt them probably. Then, oh, there of course were my friends at school. We had a missionary aviation course. It was very challenging. And for two years, the guys had to take all the base curriculum not knowing if they would make the cut to be able to go into the airport and then begin to really get the flight training. And many of my friends were standing there on the day they posted the list. Boy, I'll tell you what, that was a big day to find out which list you were on. I had a lot of friends that were crushed, and a lot of friends who were celebrating the rest of the day. It's amazing how many times life comes down to which list you're on.
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It's a pretty good guess that a woman wrote this famous line "The only difference between men and boys is the size of their toys." Actually, I think there is a little boy that does live inside of most men. By the way, I think there's a little girl who lives inside of most women.
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Okay, babies don't always know what's good for them. That may be why some parents invented the airplane idea. A baby should eat the food that he has in his bowl, but he doesn't want to. So, you put the food on the spoon, and you make it like an airplane. "See the airplane (airplane sound)! Now open your mouth!" It’s always hard when the mouth opened, the plane approached, and suddenly the mouth closed, leaving the airplane's cargo all over the baby's face. "Hey baby! I have what you need. But you won't open your mouth."
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It was a cold November night. The weather wasn't the greatest in Colorado. But Dick Ebersol's pilot felt they were good to take off. As head of NBC Sports at the time, Dick Ebersol was known as one of the most powerful men in the sporting world. But that night, he was just a dad who lost his son. The plane crashed on takeoff. Dick's older son literally pulled him from the wreckage. But his 14-year-old son Teddy didn't make it out. A few days later, Dick's wife and Teddy's mom, retired actress Susan St. James, were interviewed on NBC's "Today" show. She spoke with amazing poise. At one point, she talked about trying to help the surviving kids know how to handle some of the feelings that might come up - including what she referred to as "resentment." Out of her pain, she made a statement filled with so much insight I hope I'll never forget it. She said, "I've always told my kids, having resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die."
