Thursday, February 2, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

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

Download MP3 (right click to save)

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.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Twice in a little over a decade, Saddam Hussein's Iraq was the focus of a war involving American and other coalition forces, as you know. Operation Iraqi Freedom, the second Gulf War, turned out to be much quicker than anyone could have imagined. You might remember, Saddam Hussein was toppled from power and ultimately captured. But that didn't stop critics from calling into question the intelligence that led to the decision to send troops to Iraq. The absence of the expected stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction brought a widespread outcry for an investigation into how American intelligence missed what appeared to be the real situation. The battle kind of goes on and even today it's brought up. Well, you know this is nothing new. It's always been important for a country to have reliable intelligence information before they venture into battle. A lot of important decisions are made based upon the reports from intelligence.

Monday, January 30, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

The power was out this morning when some of our neighbors woke up. In fact, several hundred customers were without electricity. Oh, it wasn't the power company's fault. It was the fault of a driver who ran his car into an electric pole. Oh, not on purpose, of course. See it was a grandfather returning from an all-night hunting expedition with his grandson. Unfortunately, his body didn't want to wait until it got home to sleep. So the driver fell asleep at the wheel. Now, he was injured, his car was damaged, and lots of folks had no power.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Every winter we hear the stories, we see the pictures of avalanches. We have done a lot of work in Alaska, and I took special note of an avalanche that happened at Alaska's Turnagain Pass. The mountain slopes had danger written all over them that day – eight feet of new snow had fallen on this older, packed-down snow, a warm sun had been beating down all day, and there were avalanche warnings. But that didn't stop some snowmobilers from powering up this 2,000 foot high mountain to see who could go the highest. There was an even more sobering warning of the danger they were in. Twenty minutes before the major avalanche there was a smaller one in a nearby gully. But some of the snowmobilers just kept going.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

We were all nestled into our tent for the night as the campground fell silent after a busy day. We had zipped each of the kids into their sleeping bag. I had zipped up the tent and tied it securely. My wife and I were all settled into our sleeping bags for a good night's sleep. And then came the words, "I gotta' go potty." Great! Great! The bathroom was down the trail and over the hill. So, unzip my sleeping bag, unzip boy's sleeping bag, put on shoes, unzip the tent, untie the flaps – oh, and be sure you've got your lantern. Father and son make their way through the real darkness of the campground. They can't see the bathroom, but thanks to the light of their lantern, they make it to their goal in time.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Our son was a lineman when he played high school football. Which meant our son did a lot of weight lifting, which meant he got stronger. But it also meant a lot of eating, which meant he got bigger. I noticed that all the guys playing line had big muscles and big stomachs. When I commented on that, he said, "Dad, we're proud of that. It's lineman's gut!" Funny, I thought it was lineman's fat. Well, after the season, our son lost thirty pounds and his big stomach was all gone. He told me he was really proud that he had lost all that fat. (That was his word.) Of course, I had to say, "Do you remember when you told me it was lineman's gut?" He said, "Uh, Dad – I think we call that a rationalization."

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

You may have seen an actor named Iron Eyes Cody in a lot of roles as an Indian. He used to tell an old legend about a young Indian brave, going through the rites of manhood. As he hiked solo into this beautiful valley, he decided to test himself against that rugged, snow-capped mountain that dominated the valley. When he reached the top, he felt like he was standing on the rim of the world. Then he heard this rustle at his feet. It was a snake. Before he could move, the snake spoke. He said, "I am about to die. It's too cold for me up here and there's no food. Would you put me under your shirt and take me down to the valley?" The young brave refused. He said, "I know your kind! You're a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you'll bite me and you'll kill me." But the snake said, "No, I promise to treat you differently. If you do this for me, I will not harm you."

Monday, January 23, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

It's hard to describe to you how our first grandchild lit up our lives. He had a smile that was really a people-stopper. Yeah, I know I sound like a grandfather. Now, it's a good thing this is radio or you'd have to look at my pictures as well! One day when he was about 8 months old, I came home from the office to a pleasant surprise. My wife and I were babysitting our grandson. There he was, sitting on his Grandma's lap, leaning against her. I knelt down in front of the chair and told him what I tell him often. "I love you." He just looked at me, without changing his expression. I repeated it again – no response. Then two more times. "I love you." Suddenly he smiled, his arms started reaching, and his whole body leaned forward for me to hold him. And I did.

Friday, January 20, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Dr. Christiaan Barnard was a doctor who made medical history. He performed the first successful heart transplant in human history. Since then, the procedure has become much more advanced as a way to extend the life of someone with a failing heart. I've got friends whose lives were radically changed by a heart transplant – an operation from which they recovered in surprisingly short time. I mean, it's pretty amazing to think that a surgeon can literally put a new heart in someone. Of course, heart transplants have been going on since long before Dr. Barnard's historic surgery.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Our son was falling in love. I mean like the big one-like the girl he ended up marrying. She's a beautiful Navajo young woman. Our son lived on the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona, and the girl of his dreams lived in a remote area of the Navajo Reservation. It was about an hour drive to get out to her house to see her, but he managed-frequently. And the road? Oh, boy! It's one of those reservation roads that kills your shock absorbers, covers you with dust, and even opens up a crater or two for you to dodge. It's not that there weren't better roads around in that area; there are some nicely paved highways with some beautiful views. They even had some nice girls living on them probably. But my son didn't take any of those, for one very good reason. There was only one road that led to the destination he wanted. He took that one.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

We knew our grandson was about to learn to walk. He was showing all the signs. He'd been crawling. He'd been pulling himself up to a couch or a table. And he would just laugh when one of us took him by the arms and, you know, let him walk step by step in front of us. And then one day he tried it by himself. And you know how he learned to walk? Same way I did, the same way you did. Step-boom! And when he fell, he had a couple of choices. He could have just laid there and said to himself, "That's it! I tried to walk. I'm not cut out for this. I failed." Can you imagine? So, let's say he is 18 years old still lying there in the middle of the living room! His mother is vacuuming around him. His friends are rolling into his room with him. That's not what he did. He did what every other baby has always done. He got up. And he went step, step-boom! Then step, step, step-boom! And he learned to walk pretty well because he got up when he fell down!

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

I guess you could call it creative architecture. Or you could just call it a big stone in the middle of a high brick wall. I saw this phenomenon when I visited the new station of one of our radio partners. The front wall of the station has this big old 230-pound stone about halfway up the wall in the middle of the bricks. There's no way that could be mistake or an accident. It is, in fact, a message.

Monday, January 16, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

John Parker had it made. After two attempts to escape being a slave to a Southern slave owner, he had finally gotten his freedom. He chose to live in Ripley, Ohio, right on the freedom side of the Ohio River. He got a house and he got a good job as a factory worker. In fact, ultimately, he owned a foundry and he invented many processes that were used widely in that industry. He was safe, secure and successful. But night after night, John Parker risked it all. Under cover of darkness, he rowed across the river to the Kentucky side-slave territory. If he was caught, he could lose his freedom. He could lose his life. But in spite of the risks, John Parker went looking for runaway slaves. And he found them and rowed them across the river to the freedom side. It's actually believed that John Parker was responsible for at least 900 slaves going free.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

When we secured land to build our Ministry Headquarters, we barely noticed the barn that was standing on that land, until God blessed us with some truckloads of donated materials which needed a place to be stored. Suddenly, we were taking a second look at this old pole barn filled with hay. The center was the only part that had walls – walls with rotting wood. The east and west sides of the barn had no walls, just some rotting old poles holding up a makeshift roof. We asked a contractor friend if there was any hope for the barn – especially since some folks had said just to bulldoze it. The contractor said the rafters and the foundation were actually good enough that something might be able to be done.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

It was England's darkest hour. Each night the air raid sirens would wail their haunting warning that German bombers were again approaching London with their showers of death. And each night, Londoners would race to the city's bomb shelters, many of them underground in London's subway stations. When people surveyed the damage the next morning, of course the landscape had changed, with once familiar buildings now turned to rubble – and sometimes neighbors lost to the bombs.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

It may be a common term in the military, but I don't think I ever heard it before until I saw an interview some years ago with some American soldiers who were working to establish an air base at Kandahar in Afghanistan. They were busy finding and clearing land mines, repairing and expanding the runway – and, at the same time, carefully defending their perimeter. The soldiers pointed out that there were still Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters hiding out – and waiting for an opportunity, of course, to do some serious damage. That's when one soldier referred to what he called "high value targets". He said the enemy still had the capability to take out some "high value target" like an incoming aircraft, for example.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

The funeral plans for Matt were in the works. The Park Service had announced that Matt was one of five people who had been killed in a plane crash on a mountainside in Montana. The funeral never happened. Suddenly, Matt's bereaved parents heard the stunning news: although he had been badly injured, their son, along with one other Forest Service worker, had just been rescued alive, miles from the crash site. Rescue workers at the scene of the crash had concluded that the charred wreckage and the scattered human remains indicated that the crash had been "un-survivable". But amazingly, Matt and his fellow worker hiked for 29 hours, often in subfreezing temperatures, until they reached a highway where a motorist picked them up. One news magazine called it, "A Miracle in the Snows of Montana" (Newsweek, October 4, 2004). I guess!

Monday, January 9, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

Our daughter is all grown up now, but she'll never forget that very scary moment when she was four years old. My wife was shopping in a supermarket with our son riding in the grocery cart and our daughter walking with her – well, actually running ahead of her. Karen had warned her to stay in the same aisle she was in, but we're talking a firstborn here – so she had to run ahead to other aisles to explore, of course. Until suddenly she noticed how high those shelves were and how long those aisles were, and the fact that she didn't see anything familiar. And suddenly she felt that awful feeling that she still describes today as "scary" – she was lost. Not too long ago, she told me how it felt. As a grown woman, she said, "Suddenly my security wasn't there." Thankfully, her mother came looking for her. Our daughter got lost, but someone who loved her found her.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Download MP3 (right click to save)

We had someone on our ministry team who was really an enthusiastic auto-racing fan. If you're into that sport, you know a name like Jeff Gordon is one of the best in the business. One of the people that helped him get to that position is the man who has been head of his pit crew. You've probably seen those high-speed cars swing into their service pit and only seconds later they roar back into the race.

My racing fan friend told me about a TV special a while back on Jeff Gordon. On it, they interviewed the head of his pit crew – who, by the way, has a degree in organizational behavior. Isn't that interesting? He revealed just how amazing the work of the pit crew is in a sport where seconds really matter. The pit crew chief said they will change up to 20 tires in one race. Just think of what those speeds have to do to a tire! And they change a complete set of four tires (You ready now?) in thirteen seconds. That's faster than I can finish off a bite of my dinner! The driver, of course, is the name everyone knows. But the driver knows he's nothing without his pit crew!