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These days it's rare to have a happy, happy, happy week in Washington.
National leaders usually try to cool the rhetoric so we don't panic over things. But sometimes it seems like they've given up, especially the closer we get to the next Presidential election. But the leaders in Washington have been more candid than ever before saying things folks like that usually don't say.
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Through the years of ministry, God has miraculously provided so many things through His people that we'd have never been able to buy. So much of the furniture and equipment in our office is like a God-story.
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I always look forward to it as one of the season's great Christmas moments – the lighting of that towering Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. And it's happening tonight.
I remember last year. It was just a tad more exciting, for me anyway, because I had sort of a second-hand personal connection. The tree came from the farm owned by our good friends' daughter and son-in-law. (Did you get that?) They were chauffeured to ringside (actually rink-side) seats for the big show. So, not only did I get to watch the tree and the performers. Hey, I had like friends on the front row!
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I've seen several Presidents come and go in my lifetime. But during that time there's been only one Queen of England – Queen Elizabeth II – and she recently celebrated a milestone. She became Britain's longest reigning monarch, surpassing Queen Victoria. It's pretty amazing when you think about it. Over 63 years as Queen.
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If you know teenagers or even pre-teens, you'll hear that word "like" a lot! It's not new. Even when one of my sons was going through those interesting teenage years, he had a case of "like-itis", we'll call it. Typical sentence, "Well, there was like this movie I wanted to like watch, and so I like looked for what time it was supposed to be like – you know." Well, you know what though? There might be some power in that word like.
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Thanksgiving dinner in Baghdad! That's not many folks' dream way to spend Turkey Day. But for some American soldiers several years ago, Thanksgiving 2003 is one of the more memorable holidays of their lives. That was the day the President of the United States joined them for Thanksgiving Dinner; actually helped serve Thanksgiving Dinner. In the aftermath of the Iraq War, Baghdad was still not a very secure place, so the President's visit came as a total surprise and a total secret from the press. Many American soldiers were feeling the weight of an extended tour of duty and, for many, the sudden appearance of their President... well, you can guess it was a real morale boost. As GIs have learned in previous wartime visits from other Presidents, there's just something really re-energizing about a personal visit from your Commander-in-Chief.
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When you visit Washington, D.C., you're bound to see the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol Building. But there's this one side trip to Northern Virginia that's probably the most humbling stop you'll make. It's Arlington National Cemetery where this endless sea of white crosses reminds an American of the high price of freedom. That price is beautifully dramatized every hour at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier-with the Changing of the Guard.
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A team member who served on our radio team for a number of years loved to go white water rafting. His white water was on the Chattooga River, in South Carolina. He loved to take his youth group on white water kayaking trips and that's where he learned about a river phenomenon called hydraulics.
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I really hate it when a five-year-old makes me feel dumb; especially when it's my grandson. I mean, he didn't mean to make me feel dumb. He didn't know he was making me feel dumb. But he is really smart, and he knows a lot about a lot! Like the solar system. He's got the planets down cold along with all kinds of facts about the universe. Things I either have forgotten or never knew. Another thing our grandson is really mastering is numbers. Man, can he count! He's working on thousands, millions, billions, and his favorite quantity, a google! When it comes to our universe, he's never going to be able to count that high!
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It was always so much fun when we stuffed all five Hutchcrafts into the car for a long trip. And, of course, we had turf wars in the back seat. You remember that? Especially as our kids became bigger. We had three kids trying to figure out who gets which third or more, of the turf in the back seat. Of course that was only one of our problems.
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Alcoholics really need to stay away from places that are all about alcohol. Bookaholics need to stay away from bookstores. Like it's dangerous for me to spend time in a bookstore, especially a Christian bookstore.
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During the winter it's nice to think about a beach and all that sun. Of course the easiest way to cook yourself on the beach is to be there on a cloudy day. You say, "I don't feel a thing." But let me tell you by experience, the rays are still burning you.
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When I had lunch with my friends George and Linda, they told me that the view had really improved at their house. They told me that everything in their backyard had looked so dirty and so dingy for a long time - until the other day. They did something that totally changed the view. They cleaned the big window that looks out on the yard. See, when you're looking through a dirty window, everything looks dirty.
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If you come into my office, there'll be a hanging up on the wall there. It says, "Core Values." If you walk around our headquarters, many places you will see that same framed picture up there of "Core Values." You see, many years ago when we were first starting our ministry, I thought maybe we should take a look at how ministry was done in the Word of God. So I did some research, and within the best of our ability, that Bible study came down to about twelve core values. How many times we're in a meeting, "Well, what should we do?" We'll point and say, "Look at number 5. Look at number 10." And the decision was made years ago about what we should do, even though we hadn't faced this situation. Your core values - your non-negotiables - pre-made your decisions. It makes life a whole lot simpler.
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I think I remember when I first heard the word "guru". That's g u r u. It was way back in the 1960's when the Beetles went to see that Hindu mystic. I think he was called the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Not someone I would want to trust with my future, but that's who they went to. Now the term is used a lot more broadly today of a spiritual leader that people listen to, and follow, and quote all the time. Guru - that's supposed to be a Hindu concept. Oh, Christians have theirs as well.
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Most young married couples make some purchases that turn out to be a transaction that they are not proud of. Remember something you bought back then that ended up being a mistake? My wife and I were marriage rookies when we bought that refrigerator. We were also pretty broke. We saw an ad in the paper for a cheap refrigerator. I was getting tired of just putting another block of ice in the sink in the kitchen. (Not really.) Well, we picked up the refrigerator, we sat it up in the kitchen and it worked!
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It's not uncommon for me to meet a truck driver who says, "Yeah, as I travel across the country I know what station you're on and we listen to that program. I listen to Christian radio across the country." Well, that's nice to hear. And so I've learned from truckers, of course, that CB radio is very important to them. Actually, a few years ago, there was a national craze of CB radio. And we actually picked up some words in our vocabulary from that time. The CB invasion left us with words like a policeman is called a "Smokey." Your name is your "handle." When everything's OK, you're supposed to say, "10/4 good buddy." I like the phrase that CB'ers use when they want to see if you're tuned in. They say something like this, "You got your ears on?"
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One Christmas our kids gave my wife and me a pretty great compliment. They let us know they wanted us to live longer. Isn't that nice? The way they made their point was to chip in and buy us a treadmill. They put Hebrew words on there, "L'chaim - to life!" They figured it was good for our longevity to have a means of exercise that was convenient, all weather, and time-efficient. So since then I've been trying to put in my time on that old treadmill. I know it's doing some good, but it is frustrating for a man like me. I'm a man of action! I like progress. There's lots of motion, a lot of energy exerted, a lot of sweat, but after all that, you're in the same spot you were before all that. It just seems like you're not going anywhere!
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There's nothing like a famous divorce to sell newspapers. You know, people put together the words fault and divorce, and an American public collectively says, "Oh, tell me more! Whose fault? Tell me more! Put it in the newspapers! Put it on the news!" So the press obliges us, and rumors become front page headlines, especially as you're checking out of the supermarket. There are speculations about every gory detail: financial, historical, interpersonal, and extramarital.
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We were in a radio studio getting ready to tape a live youth broadcast. One of the things that made this program exciting is that we had a live studio audience of young people. This particular night a youth group was coming to be that audience.
