Thursday, February 16, 2017

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Our family has gone into New York City at times when we lived in that area with some blankets and food and gifts for homeless people, but we had to find them in order to meet them. Sometimes, they were in a park; other times they were under or near a viaduct or overpass. One night we found a little village of homeless people on a vacant lot next to the bus depot with their makeshift shelters against the back wall of the depot. I remember the time that I interviewed a homeless man on the street. I wanted to get his story out to people through my radio program. He actually let me crawl right into that large cardboard box that he called home. I guess when you're homeless you seek shelter and warmth wherever you can find it.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

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You're blessed if you have a great Christian radio station in your area. We do. It's wonderful if you can hear it. A lot of people can. But then I've talked with a friend who lives another direction who says she just can't pick up that station where she is. But then I've met people who live in a part of the area where the station has a strong signal, and they've never heard it either. They've never turned to that frequency, that's why. Important information-eternal information-is being communicated over that station. But a lot of people are missing it; some because the transmitter isn't transmitting their direction. And others because their receiver isn't turned to that frequency!

Monday, February 13, 2017

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For me, I guess it started with comic books, then the old black-and-white TV series. Then it graduated to the big screen as the subject of several blockbuster movies. "Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! (Yep, you said it didn't you?) It's Superman!" Now, one of the Hollywood stories of the Man of Steel in more recent years is called "Superman Returns." His return is from a five-year absence from earth, and during that time, reporter Lois Lane writes a major article called, "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." She makes this statement: "The world doesn't need a savior, and neither do I." Upon his return to earth, Superman visits Lois Lane and tells her, "There's something I want to show you." He picks her up and takes her on a flying trip over a long stretch of the planet. He says, "Listen. Do you hear it?" She hears nothing. Superman then makes this dramatic statement to the skeptical reporter: "I hear everything. I know you wrote that the world doesn't need a Savior, but every day I hear people crying for one."

Friday, February 10, 2017

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Our receptionist, Carol, always had nice flowers in her office-sort of flowers. Well, I mean, it looked like a beautiful bouquet. One day I walked into her office, and I sniffed and I said, "What's that smell, Carol? Is that flowers?" It was so nice to be greeted with this wonderful, spring-like aroma. She didn't answer me. She just reached into the top drawer in her desk and pulled out this air spray. "I sprayed it on the flowers," she told me. By now you know the truth about Carol's lovely flowers. They looked like they were alive. They smelled like they were alive. They were not alive!

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

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It's pretty funny how far some advertisers will go to convince you that you should buy their product. Years ago, I remember there were some Samsonite luggage commercials. They had a suitcase in the gorilla cage, taking every form of abuse a gorilla could give it. And then there was the one where they threw it out of a plane and it survived. But the pioneers of this kind of "hammer it to prove it" advertising were the makers of Timex watches. Their motto was really hard to forget, "takes a lickin', keeps on tickin'." I don't remember all the ways they beat up on their watches, but it seems to me that they attached one to a ski boat and one to the underside of a truck that was bouncing along a bumpy road. They gave it all kinds of hammering that proved the quality of their product.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

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Years ago, I was at a youth conference where we needed to raise some money for a camp scholarship fund. So we challenged the kids to buy their counselor into this Friday night food fight. Well, the kids found the money all right pretty quickly! So, Friday night all of us leaders showed up on the field of battle with the campers watching like sadistic spectators at the Roman Coliseum. Now, for starters, we got hosed down so everything would cling to us. I have to tell you, in retrospect, I'm embarrassed about the food we wasted. But I'm glad we at least got to pay for a few kids to get to camp.

Monday, February 6, 2017

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The Garden of the Gods in Colorado is one of the most beautiful spots in America. And God has allowed the Navigators ministry to have their headquarters right there. My first time there was for a national committee meeting, where they really worked us hard. But finally someone suggested a hike to the waterfall. They told me this was some of the most beautiful, spectacular scenery around these parts. And being a rookie on the committee, little did I suspect this was also an initiation. Our walk started out on a nice path that ran next to this roaring mountain stream, and it was really roaring from the recent snowmelt in the mountains. Finally, we walked to this dead-end where there was only a rock wall in front of us. I said, "Where's the waterfall?" "Over there," they said, and they pointed across the stream. I asked the obvious question, "How do you get to it?” There was no bridge. Well, they pointed to this narrow pipe that spanned the stream and they said, "You cross the pipeline." I said, "You cross the pipeline!" They’re expecting me to balance myself on this little pipe and walk across this roaring stream? But that was the only way to get to the incredible beauty on the other side!

Friday, February 3, 2017

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Okay, imagine a train traveling about 1,000 miles and the passengers are almost all teenagers! I was one of them. You say, "You mean they had trains back then?" (Leave me alone!) Yes, they had just been invented. Thousands of us were on our way to this national youth convention on specially chartered trains. And don't you wish you could be a chaperone for something like that? (Oh, a dream come true!) Well, our train was traveling all night, and I decided I wanted to beat the morning rush in the bathroom so I got my suitcase and I started making my way through one car after another to get to the one that had a men's room in it. Unfortunately, most of the other people on the train were sleeping in every conceivable position, including various body parts hanging out in the aisle. Here's the picture: dark railroad cars, boy moving down the aisle with a big suitcase in his hand, trying to keep his balance on a speeding train, and bodies hanging out into the same aisle. You get it? Bonk! Clunk! Uhh! Many unsuspecting sleepers had a rude awakening that night and I was very unpopular, and obviously very un-smart. Unfortunately, the problem? My baggage kept hitting other people!

Thursday, February 2, 2017

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It happened over a hundred years ago, but we still seem to be fascinated with it-the Titanic. I mean, the Titanic has sailed into the Internet! You can find all kinds of information about the sinking of that "unsinkable" ship back in 1912. And then, there was the Academy Award-winning movie, endless TV shows, articles, and there was even a Broadway musical about it. It seems like fascination with the Titanic just never goes away.

A lot of this information has been known for decades, but now there's a tremendous appetite for that information. Like the tragic mistake that fatal night by the radioman on the Titanic. The ship had received a number of warnings about ice ahead and had adjusted her course southward as a result. But two hours before the Titanic hit the iceberg, the radioman received a warning from another ship about a major iceberg, along with longitude and latitude coordinates. They put that iceberg right in Titanic's path. It's the one that sank the ship. But the radioman didn't know it was in their path. He was busy that night, so he stuck that message on a spindle to be dealt with later. That one choice doomed him and 1500 other passengers who died that night.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

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If you've got a house, you might complain every once in a while about the constant upkeep. I think it seems like as soon as you get one thing cared for, something else needs attention, right; the windows, the roof, the yard, the plumbing, the paint. Well, be glad you're not in charge of the maintenance of the Golden Gate Bridge. Not long ago I was standing by San Francisco Bay, and I was admiring that really impressive beauty of that great bridge, when someone told me what it takes to keep it impressive. Like thirty-five painters! Every day! That's all they do! The trucks roll out early every morning with another load of that distinctive orange paint and for eight hours a day those thirty-five painters are somewhere on that bridge, keeping it in good shape. They say things deteriorate really fast, and it takes constant effort to maintain that beauty.