Download MP3 (right click to save)
One moment they were in their apartment building. The next they were under it. Ninety people were trapped when a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar suddenly leveled their building.Fifty Myanmar children went to preschool that day. At least a dozen died there in the sudden collapse of their school.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I was out of the country, and my wife was visiting her father, along with our daughter and son-in-law. My wife convinced her dad to hike with them back into the woods to see the spring where they used to go to get water when she was a little girl. That spring gushing from the rocks, just beneath a cave above it.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Clark Kent! What a wimp! I started watching Clark Kent when he was a "mild-mannered reporter," it said, "for a great metropolitan newspaper." I was a kid then. Poor Clark! He always seemed pretty easy to push around, kind of Joe Ordinary; "Clark Can't" really. Of course there was a secret no one in Metropolis suspected. No one knew that underneath that ordinary exterior was his real identity - Superman! Clark knew that he was a whole lot more than meets the eye.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
If we did a word association game with the words "San Francisco," well, two things that might come up very quickly would be Golden Gate Bridge and earthquakes. Actually, both of those subjects came up a lot when we were in San Francisco for some youth outreaches and to tape some special editions of a youth broadcast. We didn't arrange for a quake while we were there, but we did do a program based on them. And we actually did originate parts of other programs from near the Golden Gate Bridge and even on it. According to some local friends of mine there, and they could just be Californians pulling the leg of an East Coast boy, but they said that the bridge might be one of the safer places to be during an earthquake. No, it's not the one that folded during the last big quake, you might have seen pictures of that. They say one reason the Golden Gate could withstand a quake is this surprising fact - it's built in such a way, that it's flexible. In other words, when the earth under it starts moving, it doesn't just stand there rigid and break. It's built to flex when things are shaking. So, apparently a quake might shake it, but probably not break it.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I was speaking in Mobile, Alabama when I heard about this amazing phenomenon that occasionally takes place there. It's along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. They call it Jubilee. It happens on a summer night sometime between midnight and six, and the fish, and the crab, and all the other sea critters suddenly move in very close to the shore. It's like they get so close that many of them are right up on the beach. The locals just walk along and they scoop up the fish and the crab, and they gather as much seafood as they want. Imagine what an opportunity it is for the fishermen! I mean, they can grab anything they want without going out in a boat.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
When my son was 16 he was quite a "hunk"! I mean, we didn't tell him that, but I think he probably was. He didn't start out that way. But he began lifting weights and he did it regularly. And he loved to report his new "max" to us...you know, the maximum amount he was able to lift - his bench press. And occasionally he'd flex and have us see how particular muscles had grown. I guess I was supposed to go, "Oooo, Ahhhh!" I didn't exactly do that, but... Now, there are a number of factors that go into making a man achieve his full strength. Of course, lifting, lots of protein, certain vitamin supplements, sufficient rest, workouts, and a woman. Yeah! Yeah, he needs a woman to be really strong where it really counts.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Some 16 million people saw Christopher Jones' skydive on YouTube. He bails out of the plane. Everything's going great...until the seizure. After four years of being seizure-free, he was cleared to jump.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
When someone in our house felt overworked or unfairly overloaded, sometimes you'd hear them say, kiddingly I think, "Hey, I thought Lincoln freed the slaves!" Well, actually, I think the members of our family might have been right about all of us. We do need an update on that Emancipation Proclamation. In fact, you might be surprised who the slaves are today, and the slave master. Spiritually, that is. The slaves are nice people, successful people - maybe someone like you.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
My daughter and I had not been back to that camp in the Tetons since she was a little girl, like five years old. We stayed there as a family way back then, because our good friends from college ran the camp. There she struck up a friendship with their five-year-old who's named Holly. Well, the camp has grown a lot over the years, and so have our daughters who are speeding through their lives.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
My friend was an executive at a Bible distribution society, and he told me about one of their workers in Zimbabwe. His name was Gabriel. What a great name for a man distributing Bibles, huh? Their policy was to sell their Bibles for a small price so people would value them. The problem they encountered was that some people were actually using the thin paper of those Bibles to make cigarettes! In fact, one potential customer actually said to Gabriel, "I'll take one of your Bibles, but if I do, I'll smoke it."
Download MP3 (right click to save)
My wife was like a human camera. She was able to record in her mind life experiences in living color and in full detail. I wish I could do it! And growing up on a little farm in the hills gave her a childhood full of memorable memories.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I heard not long ago about a little boy who was trying to move this huge rock. He pulled, and he pushed, and grunted and strained, trying to move it with leverage from a board, but it was all to no avail. Finally his Dad said, "Son, have you used all your resources?" "Oh, yeah, Dad. I can't make it move! I've tried everything." And his Dad replied, "No, you haven't. You haven't asked me to help you yet."
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I used to sing this little song in Sunday school. Actually, all of the kids sang it: "Be careful little eyes what you see." That was the first verse. And then we went on to "Be careful little ears what you hear." And then "Be careful little hands what you do." Of course, "Be careful little feet where you go," and so on. Actually, there is a practical truth hidden in that little song. It's about this thing called sin, which isn't just a church word or a preacher's word. I mean, it's real. I mean, your hands sin, your eyes sin, your ears sin; it's not just a concept.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
There are those moments when I make life much harder than it has to be, and in fact sometimes I wonder if I'm slipping. There was a time not too long ago when I looked frantically for my house keys. And, of course, I mobilized the whole family and said, "I've got to get out of here! I'm running late! Everybody go on a search mission; we've got to find my keys." I found them in the door right where I'd left them. I've been doing that since I was about 20.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Back when I was flying a great deal, people would often ask me where I lived, and I would frequently answer with the name of the airline I flew on the most. Now, when I hear of airplane crashes and disasters, it kind of hits me personally. I think it does anybody who has been a frequent flyer. Whether you're a flyer or not, though, there are images of certain airline tragedies that kind of forever imprint on your memory. One of those for me was the ValuJet crash in the everglades. It's been a number of years now, but the entire plane and all its passengers just vanished in the swamp.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Do you remember Humpty Dumpty? Well, you might be in the middle of a Humpty Dumpty relationship right now. You remember he fell down, went to pieces and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again. Maybe that's how you feel right now; there are pieces all around you, and there's no one to put them together. The wreckage? Well, it could be a broken relationship or maybe a breaking relationship with a parent, or a child, a husband, a wife, or a friend. If you're one of the King's men or women, there's actually something you can do to put the pieces back together again if you will.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
It was quite a few years ago when I heard about this young man on Long Island who took his sister for a ride in the family car. You say, "Oh, big deal." Well, it's no big deal except that the boy was five years old. Yes, it's true! His mother was sick in bed and his little sister said, "I want to go to New York City." So he crawled up on top of the refrigerator, got his mother's car keys out of her purse, took his sister out, belted her in, put on his seat belt, and turned on the car. It's crazy but it's true! He drove to a stop light and stopped. Then he moved forward when he was supposed to.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
When our kids were growing up we occasionally had our own personal emergency room at our house! Our youngest son dislocated his ankle in football, so the doctor put an air cast on his ankle for about six weeks for support. Oh, and then the oldest son, yeah he had surgery for a knee injury that he got in sports. So they recommended that he wear a knee brace whenever he played a game where he had to pivot much. So, let's see. You've got your ankle cast; you've got your knee brace. It's all based on a simple principle that prevents further injury.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I'll always remember, it was Friday in August. All of us who were landing at O'Hare Airport in Chicago that day had plans, and schedules, and things we had to do, and places we had to be. But as far as I know, none of us made it. That day Chicago had a record-breaking rain storm followed by massive flooding. And since there's only one viaduct that goes into O'Hare Airport and out, it had four feet of water. O'Hare became an island. Welcome to Camp O'Hare! It was flooded closed.
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I wonder if someday I'm going to be banned from restaurants. I've been known to give the help a hard time. Now, believe me, that's not what I'm trying to do. And if you're a waiter or a waitress, don't write a nasty letter to me. I just figure that it can get pretty boring to be a server at a restaurant. I mean sometimes people just start to treat them like they're part of the menu or like a vending machine. I decide that I think they're people and I think we can have fun.
