When I'm on the road and staying in a motel, I'm often leaving pretty early that day for the responsibilities I have. But by the time I return late that night, something amazing has happened. The bed is made and I didn't make it! I've got new, clean towels! I didn't find them. Everything's straightened and neat. I even get these cool little soaps now that are in the bathroom! The Room Fairy has been there! Now, I know that not because I've seen the maid (actually I haven't), but because I can see the results of her work all over the place.
It's not much fun to perform without an audience, right? Toddlers, oh they believe that for sure. Our family was having one of those rare opportunities we could all get together, and we were having some great conversations, keeping one eye on our little two-year-old granddaughter. And one eye wasn't enough for her. Huh-uh! Using her recently enhanced motor skills, she started running wide circles right in the middle of the room. After her first two spins-which did manage to get our attention-she called out two little words (I didn't even know she knew them), "Watch this!" We did.
When my wife and I would drive somewhere, we didn't lose any time when she drove. In fact, we set some records. Once we were on a trip and I was preparing for the meetings we were going to, she was driving down this four-lane, divided highway. I was looking down. All of a sudden, I looked up and I saw orange plastic cones on the middle line that divides the two lanes on our side. I wasn't clear which lane we were supposed to be driving in, because I hadn't been looking. And as I looked, every vehicle but one was moving into the left lane, to the left of the cones. You notice I said everyone but one. Yeah, that was us. My wife continued in the right lane, and I said, "Honey, what are you doing? Looks like this lane is closing." She said, "Just watch." Well, we passed a line of cars on our left, with a big truck at the head of it. See, that truck had moved into the left lane, and all the other cars said, "Oh, that must be the lane to be in." and all the other cars followed the big truck. The problem was that the truck that they were following was taking equipment to a big tar truck parked in the left lane, so we waved as we zipped by all those cars as they were heading for an unpleasant surprise.
Well, the doctor says I'm shrinking, but I think it started at about 5'8". Now, you might know that, because I sound really tall, right? Yeah. Years ago, I was carrying 210 pounds on this little body. But thankfully, I got about 45 pounds off and then it's been off for a lot of years. Of course, I've still got the same metabolism that inflated this body many years ago. Oh, do I know about dieting! Yeah. And I also know the point at which your diet is in the greatest danger. Here's how it goes! OK, you've really been good…the scale has been giving you good news the last couple of weeks…your diet discipline is holding. Then somebody offers you something that you just can't resist. Why don't we try a few French fries. You consume them in one bite. So, now what? You buy a whole order of fries for yourself. And now you feel bad. You've blown your diet. You could just get back on track right then, right? But no-you say to yourself, "I blew it! I've failed! Oh well, what's the use? I might as well have a milk shake to wash down those fries. Hey, anybody got the number of Pizza Heaven?" Okay, yeah, you messed up. So you give up and you soon return to your former roundness.
One little light. That's all it took to render our car totally unusable. The little light in the rear of our vehicle was left on one night after we unloaded some things, and it stayed on for several days while we were gone. When we got back, everything in that car said, "I'm not starting, pal!" because that one little light totally drained our battery. But then came the hero! Yes, up came our friend in his pickup truck with his trusty jumper cables. And those cables delivered the energy that my flat old battery needed to run again!
It was one of those unforgettable, milestone moments for our family. Our firstborn child was holding her firstborn child. Wow! What a moment! And we got to join them in the delivery room just moments after the little guy's arrival. And I knew this presented a shocking development. My wife was a grandmother! Could you believe it? Me, living with a grandmother! Yes, I was living in denial. And then after becoming a grandmother more than once, well finally, I had to accept that disturbing reality. I am a grandfather!
The folks at our local bakery are some of the most effective marketers I know. They don't just give you a sales pitch. No, they don't have highly creative advertising. They just offer samples. For free...one of my favorite words - free. So, I walk in to buy two bagels. There, on a plate on top of the display case, are these little bites of cheesecake, and a little sign that invites me to try one for free. So, I do, and I walk out of that bakery with my two bagels and a cheesecake. I had not planned to get a cheesecake, but they sold it in the best possible way...just by letting me taste it. The taste made me want the whole cheesecake!
I grew up as an only child. My parents took me to most of the places that they went, but I remember one time they left me home by myself. I was home alone. (You know, maybe somebody could make a movie about that someday.) Well, anyway, we lived in this third floor apartment on the south side of Chicago. It was getting very late. I was sitting near the back door waiting and they should have been home by now. I was worried. I remember hearing sirens and I thought, "Oh, no!" Okay, my imagination went crazy; it was taking me all over the place. I was thinking of all the bad things that might have happened to my parents. I was already there and then the sirens came. I was sure the sirens were for my mommy and my daddy, but they weren't. But the fear I had that night was so great, (How about this?) I still remember it don't I?
Karen's Dad didn't want the holly bush by his carport anymore. But my wife wanted that holly bush. Yep! Dad said if we would dig it up, it was ours to transplant at the little Ozark farmstead that Karen inherited from her grandparents. Sounded simple. It wasn't. It took shovels, a chain, a pickup truck, and some major engineering to get that stubborn bush out of the ground and into the truck. Well, we quickly transported "Holly" to the farm, immediately dug a new home in the ground for her, and got her replanted. Then Karen poured on the water and the nutrients. See, just removing that bush from where it was turned out to be only half the battle. We had to get it replanted quickly in new soil-or it would never make it!
Usually a total eclipse of the moon seems to happen when I'm counting sheep in the middle of the night. But this one started about 9:00 at night, and this one I got a chance to see. It's a pretty amazing sight to watch that shadow slowly move across the moon until it eventually covers it completely. I said to the friend who was assisting us with ministry that weekend, "I just wish we had binoculars." "Me, too," he said. Then it dawned on him, he said, "Hey, I do have binoculars in my truck!" All of a sudden we moved from seats near the back to something like front row seats on this eclipse. Those binoculars revealed the craters and all the fascinating details of that disappearing moon. What a difference it made to see it up close!
Over the years, our family has had some great times at the New Jersey Shore. And I love to see the Atlantic Ocean with all of its many moods: relatively calm, tide out, tide in, building surf, towering breakers, even angry in a storm. When the waves really start getting high, most swimmers make a wise choice; they get out of the water and they call it a day. But there's another breed out there. They're called surfers. Some on surfboards, some body-surfing, and they don't run out when the monster waves start coming. No, they run in! And they ride those monsters!
If you've ever had a teenage son, you'll know this answer. When a teenage boy gets home from school, what's the first question he asks? Right! "What's for dinner?" Now one of our boys' un-favorite answers to that question was that dreaded "L" word-leftovers! By the way, that was especially scary after Thanksgiving...turkey would never end. Now leftovers aren't too many people's first choice for a meal. Right? And the longer they've been left over, the more unsatisfying that choice becomes. I know I've never been to a restaurant who offered an item called "leftovers". Let's face it. Leftovers, they're second best-at best.
My bride put the ring on my finger a long time ago. I've never had if off since she put it there. Then came my surgery a few weeks ago; my first surgery ever. My rotator cuff basically wasn't there, my doctor said, and there was no choice but shoulder surgery.
We lived in a house for twenty-five years, and there was this little bare spot in the grass in our backyard. It was there since our boys were little. That was the first home plate they ever knew. Yes, that's where I taught them their first lessons in how to play baseball. Now our yard wasn't very big, so we had to start with a plastic bat and that little white plastic ball called a wiffle ball. But as I pitched and the boys learned to swing, there was one lesson I tried to permanently tattoo on their brain. It was the lesson my father taught me, that his father probably taught him, that somebody has taught every person who ever picked up a baseball bat. The most basic secret of success in sports...keep your eye on the ball!
When I say this man is a veteran test pilot, I mean he's easily old enough to be comfortably retired. Instead, he's still blasting through the skies at these mind-boggling speeds, testing some of America's most advanced aircraft. He told his amazing life story on a national television program not too long ago. It's a story of a lifelong adventure in the skies and a long spiritual search here on earth that ended-well, with the pilot of the universe piloting his life. As he concluded his story, he told about an incident where he was sent up in a state-of-the-art aircraft to help a pilot who was in distress.
Our grandson was loving kindergarten. He loved learning and he loved the friends he was making there. In fact, there were very, very few bad moments since he started school. But, there was one. His teacher had to leave early that day, so for the afternoon she put him in an art class with older students. He was the only "little kid", you know, in the room. That was okay as long as the art teacher was there, but it suddenly wasn't okay when she left the room for a short time. The older kids started to pick on him verbally and say the mean kinds of things that school kids are really good at saying. That night, our grandson was in bed and mom was there to sing and pray with him. As he debriefed his day, he talked about the mean things the older kids had said. But amazingly, he didn't seem angry with them. He said, "Mommy, I know why those kids are mean. It's because they don't have Jesus in their heart." Wow! So, the next day he took action on that insight. He took little bags of candy to those kids with a little Gospel booklet inside.
It sounds crazy at first. People trying to cause an avalanche. Actually, there are people who do that for a living. One of the many things you can learn watching the Discovery Channel! Obviously, people who get caught in the path of an avalanche of tons of snow have little chance for survival. Skiers, snowmobilers, hikers have all been the tragic victims of what is called the white death. Now enter the specialists they call the avalanche hunters. They actually drive into areas where potential avalanche conditions exist, and using this slender, hand-held cannon, they fire shots into dangerous snow masses. Well, these folks aren't crazy. They actually trigger a small avalanche-which removes some of the buildup that can cause a later major avalanche. Now it's making sense.
As Lenny left our headquarters, I said, "Man, you have really made a difference around here!" He really had. A company that was getting rid of a lot of office furniture donated about a dozen desks to our ministry, and we were thrilled to get them! Good desks, but well, not exactly beautiful desks. They were all scarred and beat up, and on the surface they didn't look particularly useful. In fact, the company that donated them actually was getting ready to discard them before they learned about our need. So, here in a storage area were all these ugly desks...until Lenny got his hands on them. One by one, he went to work with his magic touch and he slowly restored their original beauty. By the time he was done, it looked almost like we had just gotten a shipment of expensive new desks.
It's always been challenging to take our "On Eagle's Wings" team of young Native American believers to do reservation outreach. But going to Alaska to do it? Well, that meant a really challenging challenge! There's a suicide rate there 20 times greater than that of the rest of the young people in America. The young Native Alaskans are a desperate mission field. You can probably imagine the logistics of this kind of outreach were pretty exciting-especially when some of the villages you're in are 400 miles from the nearest road! The entire team had to be transported by missionary airplanes and fishing boats! Since the planes are just single or twin-engine aircraft, you can choose between taking less people with more luggage or more people with less luggage. Since we need every seat filled with a team member, the sacrifice is going to be, believe me, in how much baggage each of us takes. The limit is 20 pounds per person for five weeks! It's hard to travel that light, but it's important. When you carry just the basic essentials, you can move more people and go a lot farther!
When you're a five-year-old girl, going dark places can be pretty scary. When my wife was that age, she lived in the country and she had this long, often dark road that she walked to get to the school bus. Part of the way, there was a grandma, and then there was a neighbor who watched and waved at her as long as she was in sight. See, it was that last stretch that was the problem. Trees covering that road, making it dark on the sunniest day, and sounds in the woods that reminded her of those wild critters that lived in their area. She told me how she made it down that stretch. She said, "There was one thing that got me through every day. I sang this little song, ‘Jesus loves me, this I know.'"
