Friday, January 25, 2002

We were all nestled into our tent for the night as the campground fell silent after a busy day. We had zipped each of the kids into their sleeping bag. I had zipped up the tent and tied it securely. My wife and I were all settled into our sleeping bags for a good night's sleep. And then came those words - "I gotta go potty." Great. The bathroom was down the trail and over the hill. So - unzip my sleeping bag, unzip boy's sleeping bag, put on shoes, unzip the tent, untie the flaps - oh, and be sure you've got your lantern, Dad. Father and son make their way through the real dark darkness of the campground. They can't see the bathroom - but, thanks to the light of their lantern, they make it to their goal.

Thursday, January 24, 2002

City Boy here is a lot of fun to watch when he's trying to be Farm Boy. My wife and I were helping out in someone's barn the other night when it happened - the large shadow of something flying over our heads. I hadn't seen the creatures yet - all I could see was this massive shadow on the wall. I knew my responsibility as a man - that's right, run for help. Well, no, there was actually no reason to run. When we looked up we saw what was casting those huge, unsettling shadows - some little moths, flying around the little light overhead. The shadow was scary - the reality behind the shadow wasn't very scary at all.

Monday, January 21, 2002

The idea of building a Headquarters as a base for our ministry's mission sounded exciting - and very overwhelming. It took amazing financial miracles and the help of people who know so much more than I do. I did some building with Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs when I was little, but that experience did not prepare me adequately for the first real building project of my life. An architect drew the blueprint for what we needed the Headquarters to be, and that was great. But there I stood with this very big and detailed drawing - having no idea of where to start with what was on that paper. Thank God for the contractor that He brought into our lives! He knew what to do!

My friend Nathan was on the 61st floor of Tower Two that September day when a hijacked jetliner flew into the World Trade Center. I interviewed him recently for our youth broadcast, RealTime, and I was deeply moved by the story Nathan told. He was coming out of the restroom when he remembers seeing a piece of burning paper float by the window. That was his first hint of the horror that was to follow. As people began to realize they might be in danger, they did what my friend did - they headed for the stairwell. Nathan's account took me into those stairwells, ultimately jammed with screaming people -- through the terror of first the smoke starting to fill the stairwell and then the quake when a plane hit their building.

Our friend finally made it to the soot-covered lobby - and that's where he saw the faces he says he'll never forget. He told me, "I started seeing some of the rescue workers for the first time heading toward the stairwells and directing us out. You can still remember the looks on some of those people's faces - looking just as scared as I was, I'm sure. They are some of the people that helped save my life - and never made it out themselves."

For several years, our offices were located on the third floor of an old factory building. An alley ran behind our building, and there was an antique elevator that was useful if you had to transport things to that third floor. If you parked back there, you had to walk by this big old electrical thing that was surrounded by a chain link fence - with a sign that had these words in big print: "High voltage. Do not touch." I never knew anybody who disregarded those instructions.

Monday, January 14, 2002

If you're a photographer, you love seagulls. They soar so gracefully, almost like they're posing for the camera. They're beautiful - when they're alone. When they're together, they are not so beautiful. One gets on a perch, another comes to knock him off. One gets some food, others attack him for it. Scientists put a red band on the leg of one seagull to find out what happened, and he was pecked to death by the other gulls because he had something they didn't. Now contrast that with those Canada Geese some of us see migrating in the Spring and the Fall. They do everything together. Studies show that those geese almost always travel together, usually in those familiar V-formations. They rotate who's in front so one bird doesn't wear out. Now, if one Canada goose is injured and can't go on, another goose will stay with him until he's ready to join another flock - they're never left alone. The scientists even believe that the honking that we hear is actually the geese cheerleading for each other - "Honk! You can make it!" "Honk! Mexico or bust!"

Friday, January 11, 2002

Dr. Christiaan Barnard died recently - a doctor who made medical history. He performed the first successful heart transplant in human history. Since then, the procedure has become much more advanced as a way to extend the life of someone with a failing heart. I've got friends whose lives were radically changed by a heart transplant - an operation from which they recovered in surprisingly short time. I mean, it's pretty amazing to think that a surgeon can literally put a new heart in someone. Of course, heart transplants have been going on since long before Dr. Barnard's historic surgery.

Thursday, January 10, 2002

If you happen to watch the Discovery Channel on cable TV, you can end up seeing some real "reality TV" - including some pretty unusual fare. How about this one, "The Search for the Giant Squid"? No, that is not an adventure flick - it was a documentary about one scientist's quest to film what no one has ever filmed - the giant squid. For the whole hour, the viewer follows this man's almost lifelong pursuit. You watch as the likely target area is identified -- as an expensive expedition follows clues that seem to be leading to the elusive prey - the giant squid. But at the end, you find out you got sucked into an expedition that ultimately failed to find what it was looking for.

Wednesday, January 9, 2002

Years ago a major art gallery sponsored a competition for painters. They were offering prizes for the best painting on the subject of "Peace." As attenders browsed through the entries, most had decided that a one certain painting was almost sure to win. It portrayed this lush green pasture under a vivid blue sky, with the cows grazing lazily and a little boy walking through the grass with his fishing pole over his shoulder. It really made you feel peaceful. But it came in second. The painting that won was a real surprise. The scene was the ocean in a violent storm. The sky was ominous, the lightning was cutting across the sky, and the waves were crashing into the rock walls of the cliffs by the shore. No peace. But you had to look twice to understand what was going on. There, about halfway up the cliff, was a birds' nest, tucked into a tiny hollow in the rock. A mother bird was sitting on that nest - with her little babies, tucked underneath her, sleeping soundly. That was peace!

Tuesday, January 8, 2002

He's a baseball legend. Cal Ripken Jr. played all 21 years of his Major League career with hometown Baltimore Orioles. He holds several defensive records and he is only one of seven players who got 400 home runs and 3,000 hits. But as sportswriters reflected on his career as he retired at the end of the 2001 season, what many considered his most significant achievement was that, for 16 straight years, he played in every single game, setting the all-time record of 2,632 consecutive games played. When the ill will from the 1994 players' strike was still in the air, he tied and passed Lou Gehrig's long-standing record for consecutive games played. The fans cheered loud and long. As one magazine said, "This wasn't Joe DiMaggio hitting in 56 straight games or Hank Aaron's clubbing 755 homers. This was a record that required a talent all mere mortals could display - faithfully showing up for work every day."