August 29, 2019

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It was chaos in our living room. Most of the family was there, and we're not a quiet bunch. Everybody's a communicator and everyone is communicating. The adults were involved in several conversations at once. And our two young grandsons were playing with, well let's call it enthusiasm - maybe hoping to command a little attention. They surveyed the uproar in our living room, and I suddenly noticed a precious scene in the corner. It was our son with his dark-haired then infant daughter, sprawled peacefully in her Daddy's arms. First they'd been there cheek to cheek, then she just simply fell asleep, oblivious to the storm going on around her and safe in her Daddy's arms.

August 28, 2019

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They're those guys who wear the dark glasses and they talk to their wrist and wear that trademark stone face. Yep! They're the almost legendary Secret Service agents who guard the life of the President of the United States.

August 27, 2019

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Our youngest son had waited a long time for this. He had loved this girl for a long time and she had loved him. And now it was time to ask her to spend the rest of her life with him. So, he asked her to go with him on an old horse-drawn carriage ride along some beautiful mountain paths. He was in cahoots with the driver, so he asked if they could stop to take a picture on a nearby footbridge - just out of sight, of course. Well, the driver was loving every minute of this. On that bridge, overlooking a picturesque little stream, our son declared his lifetime love and he asked the woman he loves to become his wife. She was not surprised that he would ask someday, but this day she was overwhelmed. I love this! He awaited her answer and it was more beautiful than our son could have ever scripted. She just said, "It would be my highest honor." P.S. - the wedding was awesome.

August 26, 2019

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Birds usually build their nests in trees. We had some that tried a creative alternative at our house. While we were on vacation, this mother and father bird built a nest in the exhaust fan for our kitchen range. Problem: the nest was so huge it made the exhaust fan unworkable. Problem two: when we returned from vacation, spiders were hanging down from the hood of the range. Mmm, yum yum. We knew babies had also hatched out up there in that nest. We couldn't see them, but we could sure hear the little noises when they were hungry. We didn't want to kill a whole nest full of babies, so we waited until Mom and Dad Bird had taken the babies out. I got a long stick and I proceeded to take out the nest. But as the nest came out, we discovered a little surprise - actually a big surprise - the fattest baby bird we had ever seen, seated in that nest. My wife went in to get gloves and a box. In the meantime, he got away. How long would this Big Bird have stayed in the nest if we hadn't shaken up his world?

August 23, 2019

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Our daughter and son-in-law and grandsons were visiting some out-of-state family members. Our favorite four-year-old at the time had gone outside to play. When he tried to come back in the house, he found the door had locked behind him. He tried other doors, but he was locked out, no matter where he went. So he yelled loudly, but it was a big house and no one was close by. No one heard the little guy. The longer he was locked out without anyone responding to his cries, well you can guess, the more desperate he became. And even though he eventually got in, the awful feelings that went with being locked out left a pretty deep and lasting impression.

August 22, 2019

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Well, I've kind of succumbed and, you know, used the electric razor these days. But for a long time I shaved the old fashioned way - hot water, shaving cream, and a razor. I thought maybe that made me a "real man." Well, one day I was shaving in a hotel and I realized that I had run the hot water too hot. It's one thing to soften your beard; it's another thing to cook your face. So I ran just a little cold water into the sink, and that was amazing! Suddenly, the water was not hot enough! (A little science experiment here.) See, I underestimated how quickly the cold can cool off the hot.

August 21, 2019

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I know I really need to exercise. My blood and my pulse - they don't really get going very fast as I sit many days doing my work. You know, like what I'm doing right now sitting at a microphone. I think back on my favorite form of exercise of my childhood. I used to chug around on my bicycle when I was a little kid. And when I was little, it was for fun or just basic getting around.

August 20, 2019

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I've flown into the Anchorage, Alaska airport before, but I've never driven around that airport before. I was returning my rental car, which had to go to one terminal, and I had to race to make my plane at the other terminal. It was still dark, which didn't help in reading the signs at an unfamiliar airport, and somebody else must have my sense of direction. I thought I was heading for the rental car return until suddenly it looked like I was heading out into nothing that looked like an airport at all. As soon as I realized I was going the wrong direction, I knew what I had to do. I turned around as fast as I could and I drove very quickly in the right direction. And hello, whew! I made it!

August 19, 2019

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"The wall." I don't know what you think of when I say that, it could just be the surface you're looking at across the room, it could be something that has been proposed for some of the immigration issues in our country. It could be the Berlin Wall that used to separate East and West Berlin. Look, forget all that. If you're a marathon runner, I'm pretty sure what you think of when you think about "the wall" is that point in a grueling 26-mile run where you feel like your body is shutting down and you can't go another step. You've used up most of what you body has to give, and everything in you seems to be saying, "Quit now!" But the champions don't.

August 16, 2019

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It's got to be one of my favorite plays - "Fiddler on the Roof." The story is virtually a modern classic. It tells with this incredible charm and warmth the story of 19th Century Jews in Russia. All the joys of Jewish faith and Jewish family are there, along with the pain of persecution for being Jewish. Tevye, the milkman, is the colorful father of the family; a man who is forever arguing with himself. If you're familiar with the play, you'll remember how his conversations with himself - and even with God - will go back and forth as he talks himself in and out of opposite viewpoints. Tevye will present one view, and then inadvertently he will say, "On the other hand..." and he'll talk himself out of it. He doesn't actually reach many conclusions!

August 15, 2019

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I was speaking at this beautiful conference center, and I'd actually been expecting to stay at the inn where the conferees would be, because that's where I've stayed on previous occasions. But this time they gave my wife and me the key to what they called one of their "remote cabins." Well, I asked the man in charge if everyone they sent to those cabins came back. He smiled and said, "Yeah, if the bears don't get you." Oh that's nice! Actually, it was a fabulous cabin, nestled in the woods with this spectacular mountain view. But there's limited access to these cabins. They're located on a long mountain lane, the entrance to which is unmarked and guarded by a gate. They gave us a pass that opens that gate. Apparently, they don't want anyone else following you in. I'll tell you, that gate opens for a brief time and then it closes. So get movin', buddy! My guess is that the bears? I don't think they need a pass.

August 14, 2019

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Each of our three children learned the Heimlich maneuver in school. You probably know what that is. If someone is choking, you get behind them; you do the magic squeeze to dislodge whatever they're choking on and it keeps them from choking to death.

Now, can you imagine being in a restaurant and you see someone choking on a piece of food? You stand up immediately and you say, "Is there a throat specialist in the house? We need a throat specialist right now!" Well, there is none there, so you say, "Well, I guess we have to take him to the hospital."

August 13, 2019

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Water! Drinking lots of water is good for your health. So I usually have a big mug or bottle of water in my office, a lot of bottles of water with me when I travel. My wife and I were driving one time to some ministry events, and another couple from our team was traveling with us in the back seat. And they got to be the keeper of the water, and the snacks of course. But let's stick with the healthy stuff. This little drill developed, thanks to the thoughtfulness of my buddy in the back seat. When I finished a bottle of water, I handed the empty bottle back to him so it could be dumped in our garbage bag. But as I handed my empty to him, there he was with a full bottle to place in my other hand.

August 12, 2019

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When my wife and I stuck our head out the door of our motel room one morning, we were greeted by a torrential rainstorm. Because we were driving a larger-than-usual vehicle, we had to park a distance from our room, and that meant we were in for a wet run to our vehicle. I was collecting our overnight bag, so my wife was the one who struck out into the monsoon first. For the most part, she was able to run under the cover of that motel overhang. So I took off, sprinting along the route that she had just taken. What I missed was her yelling "No!" to me as I approached a place to cross the parking lot. I missed her warning and promptly, you know, ran full speed into a huge puddle that had accumulated at the edge of the sidewalk: soaked socks, soaked shoes, squishing all day. Maybe you've been there. Oh, and my wife's feet? They were dry. Mine were soaked. The difference? She looked ahead to see where she was stepping. I didn't.

August 9, 2019

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Barber shops are interesting places to do a study of the male half of the human race. It's really "Guy's World." That's what made me take special notice of the dad who came into the barber shop with his two young daughters. They were doing fine, and it was really neat to see how the three of them got along. I smiled at that dad and I said, "Your daughters are really well-behaved. It must be interesting to have them here. It's kind of a 'guy's world' isn't it?" "Yeah," he replied. "Not much talking."

August 8, 2019

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Of course I'm too young to be having senior moments. Although I think I might have been having them since I was about 25. One of those is when you seal an envelope and you suddenly realize you left something out; maybe the check or the letter that was supposed to go in it. And you've already gone to the trouble of addressing it, putting your return address on it, maybe even stamping the envelope. This is why more and more people are just doing it on the Internet of course. But it's too bad if you did that with the envelope. You're going to have to open it up, you know, even though you sealed it. Good luck. You probably won't be able to use that envelope. Once it's sealed, it's meant to stay that way.

August 7, 2019

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Maybe it's because of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. Yeah, as a boy I watched that ancient show on TV. I was fascinated watching my Mountie hero racing across the snow with his dog team. I even wore pants that were marked "husky."

And then there was my ministry trip to Alaska one February where I got to see dog team races in the snowy streets of Anchorage. They call it the "Fur Rondy." Now, those memories reignited recently because our son retraced that trip to lay the groundwork for a historic conference for Native Alaskan young people.

August 6, 2019

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When Lee Stroebel writes a book, he brings to it all the skills and the disciplines that he learned as a journalist. Lee was a respected reporter and, by the way, an atheist. Today, he's a powerful representative of Jesus Christ and a leader in reaching people for Him. While preparing for a book he wrote, Lee interviewed a wide variety of noted people to get their perspective on Christ. One was a man who was a gifted evangelist in the 1940s, a man whose ministry actually paralleled Billy Graham's; in fact a man who was known by millions and actually expected to have a ministry like Billy Graham has had. But after he attended a liberal seminary to get more education, he shocked the Christian world by abandoning his faith. His media career in Canada gave him a lot of notoriety, and he often used that platform to express his unbelief.

August 5, 2019

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Paula really took some risks. She's a Native American young woman who was in a training program at our office. She was deathly afraid of heights and my wife and I took her out for lunch at a place called the Cliff House Inn. Guess where it is? It hangs out on the side of a mountain. When we went out on the porch to admire the view, Paula asked to go out there with us. We had to hold her hand, but she bravely ventured out and actually spent a few minutes looking out from that very high perch that's suspended over a deep valley. The next day she went with a girlfriend to a theme park, and she purposely went with her on roller coasters that she was afraid of. You know something? It turned out, Paula was not quite as afraid of heights as she used to be.

August 2, 2019

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We get our share of storms where we live, and we've got our share of trees. So, you can probably figure out the rest. After almost every storm, I make the rounds in the yard, and I get to pick up the souvenirs the storm left behind. I haul all those downed branches to my special brush pile place even if they've still got leaves on them. Look, even if I am a city boy, I know there's no use planting those branches in the ground and hoping they'll grow more leaves. In fact, those leaves they have are soon going to fall off. As soon as the branch gets separated from the tree, it starts dying.