Monday, October 27, 2014

Download MP3 (right click to save)

I guess every neighborhood has its' bully. When I was growing up, our neighborhood sure did-Boomer! I'm not making that up. That was his name! This guy made all of us little kids in the neighborhood his victims. He'd beat us up, he'd tower over us, he'd threaten us, he'd take our stuff. One day I'd had enough! I was little and he was big. But I marched all the way down our little block on the south side of Chicago. I went up the steps on that back porch, and man, I pounded on the screen door there. Boomer came to the door. I said, "Boomer, I want my stuff back!" He said, "Man, you're a brave little kid." Well, he didn't really say that, but you probably said, "Well, Ron, I really underestimated you." Yeah, there was one thing I forgot to tell you. My Father went with me. That made a very big difference. Like this: Boomer was bigger than I was, but my Father was bigger than Boomer was.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Download MP3 (right click to save)

I'm the early riser in our family, so it's not uncommon for me to be in the bathroom around 6:00 in the morning; only one awake. Even when our children were at home I made a science of being quiet in the morning so I didn't wake up my wife or anyone else who was sleeping.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Download MP3 (right click to save)

I was having a conversation with a young man who was a student in a Missionary Aviation course. Now, he had only had classroom training. He did have a little experience when he visited the flight training facility. On the second day they said, "Okay, go for it." He was flying! Now, he was carrying his notepad with him the day I saw him, and I noticed the sentence he had written at the top of his notes. It was obviously something he thought he would be tested on either in the classroom or maybe in the cockpit someday. Actually, it could be life-or-death information on a particular day. Here's what it said: "Attitude-the relationship of the known to the horizon." Now, he told me that simple discipline is what keeps an aircraft stable. Maybe you, too.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Our youngest son was not looking forward to the drive back to college. Oh, he liked to drive, but not 14 hours alone. In fact, his un-favorite state coming from New Jersey to the Midwest – Pennsylvania. Now, this has nothing to do with the scenery. It has nothing to do with the people. Pennsylvania is a great place. It has to do with the length of Pennsylvania. It's about twice as long as any other state between home and college for him. So, when you're driving, it seems like it's the eternal state. Please, no hate mail from Pennsylvania. You can address it to my son. This is not my fault. And that was years ago as a college student.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Now, if you're a weatherman in Seattle, Washington and you absolutely have to guess what the weather is going to be tomorrow, you should probably guess rain. Of course it's not unusual for it to rain in Seattle. It's a beautiful city with mountains, and an ocean, snow for skiing, and more rainy days than most would probably concede.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Download MP3 (right click to save)

There was a stretch in the life of the Buffalo Bills football team where they had to live down three straight losses in the Super Bowl. Now, there were some memorable victories, but people tend to forget the victories. In fact, they did have this one amazing victory. It was January 3, 1993. It was one of the most amazing games I can remember! It was the wild card game against the team known then as the Houston Oilers. Now, the winner of that game would be in the playoffs, and as things turned out, ultimately in the Super Bowl.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Download MP3 (right click to save)

In the "olden days" if I had wanted to keep our home warm for the winter I would have had to go out and chop wood. I'm not sorry I missed that. But when I was little, my Dad had to shovel coal into a furnace so we could get heat, with a little help from me of course...very little. And then our home back in New Jersey had oil heat, and we always had enough heat. I didn't have to worry about running out of oil. And I didn't have to go get any. Our heating company always seemed to know when our supply was low. So for me that meant no chopping, no shoveling. Someone always made sure we never ran out.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Download MP3 (right click to save)

I was at the headquarters of an international missionary radio ministry, and I was looking into creating a radio project and I needed a little help. I was told that I should speak with, let's just call him Chuck. Okay?

This man that they wanted me to speak with was a very interesting fellow. While discussing a project he would begin brainstorming. But he wasn't very good about keeping in touch once he headed off to do the project. In fact he literally sometimes could not be found! He didn't call in. He didn't communicate at all! This is exactly what they told me, "You'd hear nothing from him, and then suddenly he would reappear and the video is completely done." The gentleman that recommended him said, "You know, he just about drives you crazy, but we love what the guy produces."

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Okay, I've got to admit this. When something's wrong with our car, you're not going to usually find me under the hood. I'm not really that good at that, so I head for the gas station. Now, Dave has worked on our car for years, and he does a very good job. So I would tell Dave the symptoms of what seems to be wrong with the car; the noise, the starting problem, or the loss of power. And then Dave talks back to me. He tells me what he thinks it might be, what he thinks it might cost and how long it might take to fix it. What do I do? Do I say, "Thanks, Dave!" and then chug away in my ailing car? Well, duh, no! I leave it there.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Download MP3 (right click to save)

I was on a typical wall-to-wall schedule, and old man winter wasn't cooperating. I was traveling with my wife and we were slipping and sliding through this major snow storm to get to our flight at the airport. We heard on the radio that flights were being seriously delayed. I told my wife, "That airport's going to close. I know it is." So we made a last-minute decision. We called Amtrak. They had two seats left on the train, and we diverted from the airport to the train station.