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Tuesday, March 13, 2018

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Sometimes when I'm speaking at a youth conference, I show up on the platform with a pie and a can of whipped cream. Sometimes it makes the front row a little nervous. But not to fear - it's only an illustration, not a weapon. I have my pie cut into six slices. I cover one of those slices with a generous serving of whipped cream. Then the big question to the audience, "How many slices are going to taste like whipped cream?" There's no trick question here. One slice will. Then I spray the whipped cream all over that pie and then there's whipped cream everywhere. And then I repeat the question. This is not hard. Every slice of the pie now will taste like whipped cream. Which, whether you realize it or not, could have a lot to do with how God feels about you as a Christian!

Monday, March 12, 2018

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Marathon man! Yeah, that's me. When we're driving a long trip, I want to get there. I like to drive. Oh, guess what? We just keep barreling. You can ask my kids when they were
little. They knew we only stopped when the gas tank was nearly empty. Sometimes when our other tanks were really full I guess. But they might say, "No, he wasn't marathon man.
He was psycho man!" Well, I have to wonder if I would stop at all if the car didn't have to. You know, cars are like that. They just have to stop for refueling. Cars don't run
forever. Neither do we.

Friday, March 9, 2018

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Fasten your seat belt, science fans. These days it seems as if there's a blockbuster discovery almost every day in the rapidly expanding world of science. But few things have amazed me more than some of the discoveries that came out of the mapping of human genes, human cells, and the stuff of human life that we call DNA. You've lived in your body so many years you probably don't think much about it. Well, think about it for a minute. Your body has, according to the research, ten trillion cells. Each of those ten trillion cells contains a strand of DNA that, if you uncoiled it, would be about six feet long. Now, here's what they're telling us. If you were to place each of those ten trillion strands in your body end to end - ready for your mind to be blown? Your DNA would span the solar system! Go take another look in the mirror.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

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It was a scene that was re-enacted a number of times when our daughter was a little girl. Okay, here's Daddy, in his chair in the living room, immersed in his newspaper. In comes daughter, asking for a little attention from Dad. Dad says, "Uh, in a while, honey." The request is repeated, and the same response. Then, after a few minutes, a little girl comes crashing through the newspaper onto her father's lap. Before I could say anything, she would wrap her arms around my neck and just say, "Daddy, it's cuddle time!"Oh, boy! Melted Daddy, all over the floor.

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

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"The Mad Cleaning Man" That's one of the nicknames affectionately given to me by my family. And I've worked pretty hard to earn that name. Let's put it this way, I hate clutter. I'm not the neatest guy in the world, but I can only function so long when mess is building up around me, you know? So, often without warning, I would go on a straightening rampage. And what was the best way to keep from having to pick something up again? Right! You throw it away! I look at things before I trash them. Come on, you should know that. I'm not irresponsible. But over the years, a family member would walk into a room that was messy when they left but had since had my magic touch. But they would say "Oh no! Dad's been at it again." Which could be followed by cries of frustration as they look for some item, "Dad, where's my such-and-such? It was right here!" Then they would see the glazed eyes of "The Mad Cleaning Man" and they gave up asking. Cleaning up is good, right? But it can be irritating.

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

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I had just returned from an exciting, but exhausting, ministry trip. I was, as I think the British say, "cabbaged." Well, that kind of described me. Two of our staff picked up my remains at the airport, and I settled deep into the passenger side of the front seat. As we were approaching my home, one of my co-workers said, "I can tell you're really tired." I asked how. The answer was, "You didn't ask to drive." Now that's amazing. I guess I always want to drive, and this time the thought hadn't even occurred to me! I'm not even sure I had any thoughts.

Monday, March 5, 2018

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The setting was a beautiful Christian conference center, nestled in this idyllic spot in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Now Rocky Mountain fans won't be impressed, but some of the mountains around the conference center rise to five or six thousand feet. I had been speaking there, and the director began to tell me some interesting stories from their last few months at the center; like the man they had to go looking for at the top of a nearby mountain in the middle of the night. See, he'd gone too far, and he'd stayed out too long. I asked the obvious question: "Well, was he lost?" The director said: "He didn't think he was."

Friday, March 2, 2018

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Our friends own this historic New England inn, and we were privileged to be their guests there on occasion. We loved to go there. I mean, that quaint New England village with a lot of charm. Unfortunately, it's not real close to any major ski area or other attractions. So the hotel and motel owners there were doing OK, but they seldom would sell out. We can understand why our friends, the innkeepers, and the other hotel owners in the area weren't too excited about the news that a couple of major national motel chains would build in their town. There doesn't seem to be enough demand for rooms there to match all that supply. In fact, one point my friend kept making to the town fathers was this. He says, "This is a nice place, but this is not a destination."

Thursday, March 1, 2018

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He may have been the greatest American hero of his time; his name was Meriwether Lewis. When President Thomas Jefferson bought the massive Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon, the size of this young country was more than doubled overnight. The land stretched from the Mississippi all the way to the Pacific, and much of it was known well to Native Americans but largely unknown to white Americans. Jefferson tapped his personal aide and a distinguished war veteran to lead this incredible adventure that we know today as, that's right, the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Following the long and winding route of the Missouri River, Lewis led his expedition all the way from the point where it ends near St. Louis to its headwaters in Montana. His longtime dream had been to find the source of that river and to drink from it. He got his dream. If only it had satisfied his thirst.

wednesday, February 28, 2018

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It's really a beautiful area of the Southwestern United States, except for this one horrendous eyesore. It's a graveyard for cars. Acre after acre; you've seen them. They're covered with cars that have been discarded, or wrecked, or crushed, and stacked several cars deep. And every time I pass this one and I see all these trashed and mashed cars, I can't help but thinking to myself, "Just think, one day that car was somebody's dream come true." Someone probably wished for that car, got that car, and showed everybody this car they were so proud of. Look at it now!

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

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Look, people were confused about it for centuries. They looked at the sun rising and setting every day and they reached a seemingly obvious conclusion: the earth is the center of everything and the sun revolves around the earth, right? If you say "right," you need to go back to third grade science. Actually, if you think the sun revolves around the earth, well, did you know you agree with about one out of five Americans in a recent survey? Well, that's a good thing to get right. I mean, what's in the center and what revolves around it.

Monday, February 26, 2018

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Our son-in-law has always liked to ski, even though he has never gotten to do it that often. And like everything else he does athletically, he goes for it when he skis. But his last time on the slopes was different from all the other times in his life. See, for the first time, he had a son! And that little baby was on his mind when he was on the slopes. When we asked about his ski adventure, I got the distinct feeling he didn't take the risks he's taken before. Actually, here's the way he put it. Moving his arms in skiing form as he said, and just kept saying, "I'm a Daddy. I'm a Daddy. I'm a Daddy."

Friday, February 23, 2018

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It's one of life's passages-taking your first child to college. You drive off, leaving your firstborn there, knowing your life and theirs will never be quite the same. When we left our daughter at the Christian college she had chosen, her two younger brothers were sure they knew how their mother would react. In fact, without announcing it, they just kept watching her all the way home, waiting for her to cry. Well, she never did, and our boys were baffled. They finally asked, " Mom, why didn't you cry?" (What is this to kind of watch Mom cry?) Well, see, the college had given us parents two days of very reassuring orientation, and my wife and I had been very impressed with how they had thought through their students' needs. So why didn't Mom cry? She said, "I don't cry about leaving my child when I know they're in good hands."

Thursday, February 22, 2018

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This grandparent thing can be an expensive proposition. I mean, without grandchildren, you can walk past hundreds of cute toys and never miss a step. But when you have a grandchild, you keep seeing your grandchild's name on those toys. Which means you must buy toy with name on it. Right? Well, not all of them, but probably too many of them. We happened to be in a store with our little granddaughter when she was about one year old, and I happened to see this great stick horse that I thought would be entertaining for another grandchild. That would be our nearly three-year-old grandson at the time. When you squeeze the ear of the head of this horse, the William Tell Overture (otherwise known to us non-intellectuals as the "Lone Ranger Theme") starts playing, and the horse starts whinnying and snorting, and its nose starts twitching back and forth inside its halter. Well, I walked up to the grocery cart that our one-year-old granddaughter was riding in, and I turned it on for her to see. Her reaction was interesting. She reached in the direction of that twitching steed, wanting me to bring it closer. So I did. But as I brought it near her, she pulled as far back as she could, laying her head against her mother's shoulder. So much for my field test.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

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I was in downtown Oklahoma City, and I had the privilege to visit the scene of the Oklahoma City bombing back in April of 1995. I don't think any of us who were alive at that time will ever forget the images of the day that that Federal Office Building was destroyed by a terrorist bomb. The images of that devastated building and of the frantic rescue efforts there, a baby in a fireman's arms. It was a day of heart-wrenching tragedy and it was a day of incredible heroism. Literally, an entire city dropped everything to respond in whatever way they could to this life-or-death situation. The job was clear that day: rescue the dying whatever it takes.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

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The news accounts from Florida said the man was in his 70s, and that he went for a walk the night before. Now the reason his walk made the news was because he was sleeping during this walk and because of where he ended up. Apparently, he got up out of bed, grabbed his cane, went outside, and started walking - all without ever waking up... until he walked right into a lake. Oh, not just a lake; no, a lake filled with alligators. And those alligators went right to him, welcomed him. Yeah! Thankfully, he was somehow able to beat them off with his cane and crawl to safety. But you talk about a rude awakening! Can you imagine waking up in the water, looking into alligator jaws?

Monday, February 19, 2018

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One of our team members is quite the woodsman and hiker. And one foggy Saturday morning, he volunteered to lead a group of men who wanted to go hike to this distinctive rock formation called Hawksbill Crag. He had the book on the trails in that area; a book written by the man considered the expert. My friend kept consulting the book as they went along, pretty confident that they would soon end up at Hawksbill Crag. They ended up lost in a poison ivy patch, and the fog wasn't helping much. As they tried to retrace their steps, they passed a house set back in the woods and they happened to see its owner outside. My friend called to him and asked him if he would help them get "un-lost." That man went above and beyond. He actually came to where they were, helped them make sense of the map that they had, and pointed them right to the trail that got them to their goal. Of course, it turns out he was the man who wrote the book.

Friday, February 16, 2018

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When you have a commercial flight to catch at a major airport, it's important to pay attention. There are so many flights, so many gates, so many people, and there's only one plane you want to board; the one that's going to your destination. Right? Well, I guess folks must have made mistakes over the years. I mean, that's got to be the reason the boarding agent or the flight attendant gets on the plane and often says something like this: "This is a destination check. You're on Flight 88 to Atlanta. If Atlanta is not your destination today, this would be a good time for you to deplane." Yeah, I guess. In other words, this buggy ain't going where you want to end up!

Thursday, February 15, 2018

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It seems as if the movie comes around again about once a year on TV, and we get a chance to see that charming story called "The Wizard of Oz." What a quartet! I mean, Dorothy, the little Kansas farm girl blown into the Land of Oz. She wants to see the Wizard to get help to get home. Then remember, there's a Scarecrow, he wants to see the Wizard to get some brains. And the Tin Woodsman, well, he's looking for a heart. And last but not least, there's that lovable feline, the Cowardly Lion. Now I know some people who could use some brains, I know some people who could use a little more heart; but we're surrounded by people who could use more of what that Cowardly Lion was looking for. Remember, "I need courage."

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

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Sometimes my regular routine doesn't allow me as much exercise as I'd like. So when my wife and I would get a few days away, I would always enjoy picking up the pace a little with some biking or hiking that I didn't get to do usually, you know. Of course, I could usually feel that I hadn't been doing it enough. It's still true. The next morning I'm hurting in places I didn't even know I had places. I remember one time we were away at the shore, and I did this sunrise jog on the beach. I felt so healthy - and so beat. I was pounding back on the sand, all tired and sweaty and disgusting, thinking about walking the rest of the way. And there was my wife in the distance. And suddenly my motivation was back. I picked up my pace like an Olympian. I had almost reached her when I saw what she had written in huge letters in the sand, "I love you, Ron." Oh! What a happy ending to a long, hard run!

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