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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

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The best time to go to Long Beach Island is off season. It's this beautiful stretch of land off the New Jersey coast about 12 miles long, not very wide. In fact you can see the ocean on one side and the bay on the other side. It just has this one, long main street. During peak season, which of course is during the summer, it's very slow going on that street; bumper-to-bumper people, cars and red lights. I hope you're not in a hurry to get to the beach or to get back to your house. It's going to take you a while. But when you're there during the off season, which we've had the privilege to be, you see this long string of traffic lights as far as the eye can see. When you're driving you can hit this string of green lights and never stop.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

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I had the opportunity some years ago to speak for some pilots organizations, and I've never piloted a plane. I'm always a passenger. But they wanted me to talk about peace and stress. And it was something I wrote a book about, so it worked out pretty well. In the process I met some guys who deal with FFA safety seminars. They told me some interesting things about what happens with some of the crashes that we might see in the news. They said that when a private pilot crashes, there's usually a study of that, and they start to compile case studies to help other pilots fly more safely.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

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I was with two friends returning from some Native American ministry in the Southwest, and we had a rental car and a four-hour drive to the airport in Phoenix. So we really needed every minute to make our connection, which made the lurch in our car pretty annoying. See, every time the driver would get the speed up to about 60, the car would start shuttering and lurching. Now, there was a 75mph speed limit, and that's frustrating. We weren't sure we'd even make it with that "shake, rattle, and roll" mobile we had.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

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Well, I guess all of us began our training for public speaking back in Kindergarten or maybe First Grade. Remember when the teacher had you do Show and Tell? You had to bring some object to school and tell about it or what it represented. I can still remember the scramble around our house a lot of mornings as one of our three children would remember, of course, with one foot out the door, "Oh boy, I've got Show and Tell today." So we'd race around the house trying to find something they could show. See, the teacher wasn't interested in us just showing up with a story that day. No, you had to have something concrete. Telling was not enough to make it. If you showed up with your show, you had to tell about it too

Monday, February 23, 2015

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Honestly, I don't mind waking up in the morning. What I really don't like is waking up in the early morning to a very cold house during the winter. Those first few minutes in the bathroom, no fun at all! Teenagers, you know, kind of tell you to kind of "chill". Well, I got that opportunity one morning not long ago. I chilled! I tried everything to get some heat. I pushed up the thermostat, I hit the emergency button on the furnace, and I hit the furnace. I pulled on some clothes to go outside and check the gauge on the fuel tank, which read one-eighth of a tank.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

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You know McDonald's, the hamburger people? Over the years they have built quite a juggernaut. They have had some of the most brilliant marketers in history I think. I mean, they have advertised McDonald's as a warm, friendly, fun place. And they kind of make every child in America want to eat there. Sometimes it has seemed like we were lousy parents if you didn't take them to Ronald's place to get a Happy Meal. You know, to pick up the toys, the cups from the hottest new movie, to play under the Golden Arches.

Monday, February 16, 2015

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I had the cutest little guy join me on my hike. I was in the country exploring a trail that wound along the creek and at first I just saw this little flash of black and white fur toddling along through the grass not far from me. He was headed the same direction I was; going my way. I told you he was cute. He was all black, except for a nice white stripe all the way down his back, a big bushy tail, a cute little almost kitten-like face. Yes, it was a skunk!

Friday, February 13, 2015

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I've had a number of young women complain to me about a condition they find rampant in young men these days. You could call it "commitment phobia." Or as one author did, "Peter Pan syndrome; I don't want to grow up." A guy's willing to show interest, he's willing to court you, charm you, agree with you, spend money on you, and you reach this level of mutual compatibility. That's good. And then you're on the edge of commitment and he's gone. That's pretty frustrating.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

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My friend was an executive at a Bible distribution society, and he told me about one of their workers in Zimbabwe. His name was Gabriel. What a great name for a man distributing Bibles, huh? Their policy was to sell their Bibles for a small price so people would value them. The problem they encountered was that some people were actually using the thin paper of those Bibles to make cigarettes! In fact, one potential customer actually said to Gabriel, "I'll take one of your Bibles, but if I do, I'll smoke it."

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

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There's that old country song "Country Roads take me home to the place I..."? Well, you know. Sometimes I think that's my wife's national anthem. She grew up in the Ozarks and boy, she has the memories. Most of them are down some country road, unpaved, rutted, rocky and dusty. With a standard rear-wheel drive vehicle, you'll begin to wonder if you'll ever get back from some of those roads, especially if the weather's been bad.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

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My friend, Jack, has a short list of people he totally respects. At the top if his list? His Dad. He told me once, "Don't think that meant that I always did what he said when I was a kid. In fact, the usual script was like this. Dad told me to do something or not to do something, and because I'm stubborn, I'd go ahead and I'd do what I wanted. After which my Dad would spank me. And then I would end up doing it Dad's way."

Monday, February 9, 2015

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It wasn't my idea to get a dog. But, I did get attached pretty quickly to little Missy. She was cute. She was with us for quite awhile, she became a part of the family; a little shiatsu dog. Now, I never called her Missy Hutchcraft. I mean, I didn't make her a member of the family, but she was cute.

Friday, February 6, 2015

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My wife and I have some hummingbird feeders. Because those busy little guys, they're fascinating to watch! You know, they come as back porch visitors. You've probably seen them. Their wings go so fast you can hardly see the wings. They're virtually like God's little helicopters. They hover, they fly backwards, and then they fly away. I love to watch them. And do they like sugar! My wife mixes up this concoction that's basically sugar-water and they flock to it. Then they'll fly off in this burst of acrobatic energy, only to return a few minutes later for a refill.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

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I'll tell you what kind of airline passenger makes an interesting neighbor; someone who has never flown before. Flight attendants refer to them as "white knuckle" fliers from the way they hang on. Well, my friend, John, was on his way to speak somewhere. And since it was just a one-day meeting, he was dressed in the suit that he was going to speak in. And he had the joy that day of sitting next to a lady who was on her rookie flight. She was as nervous, as they used to say, as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Whenever there was a noise, like the landing gear retracting, she would say, "What was that?" And John would patiently explain.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

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Of course the most boring part of any youth group outing is the long bus trip, especially if the trip is say from Michigan to Arizona. I once interviewed some kids who went on a mission trip to the Navajo Reservation from Michigan. I don't think they'll remember their trip as boring. Because of the carelessness of another driver, their bus had to swerve sharply at one point and the bus went off the road and started to roll all the way over into a ditch. Well you've got to know that was scary! One by one they emerged from the bus. Some of them were injured and they had to be treated at a local hospital, but thankfully no one was killed.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

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American's are pretty passionate about their sports. And, you know, like which one is the one that takes the most brains, the most brawn, the most talent. I actually think my two sons might vote for basketball as the most exciting sport of all. And basketball action is pretty physical. It's constantly changing, it's intense, it's unpredictable. There's this one point where it does slows down a little, much to the relief of the players probably. If a player is fouled by someone from the other team, he gets to shoot one or two free throws.

Monday, February 2, 2015

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It can be pretty amusing if you listen in on conversations that revolve around a newborn baby. I'm wondering how they ever learn to talk, the way we adults talk to them. We just lean over and go, "buga, buga, buga" or something like that. And I don't know how they ever learn. But I really think it's funny when the conversation turns to, "Well, who do you think he looks like?"

Friday, January 30, 2015

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Our family's had the wonderful privilege to spend some unforgettable ministry days on Native American reservations in the southwest. And when you're there you do a lot of driving. Now, the vehicle of choice there is not a car. No, no, no you want a truck. The roads there are, shall we say, of uneven quality. A lot of places are only accessible on roads that are steep and bumpy, and it challenges the durability of any vehicle or passenger for that matter.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

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I ordered out for lunch and of course it came on a paper plate. Guess what I did with the plate when I finished lunch? I didn't wash it, no, I didn't save it for later, no. In fact, I've never done that with a paper plate. Now look, we've never had tons of money, but I have never in my life saved a paper plate. I throw it away, like you probably do! And I don't feel any sense of loss or regret, "Oh, look what I did to my paper plate." It doesn't bother me.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

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I think airlines know how boring it can be when you're flying sometimes, and they've done their best over the years to try to put all sorts of things in our seat pockets to entertain us. I remember finding catalogues where you can buy the latest gadgets, the required safety info about where the exits are, a listing of everything you can listen to on the flight. And then there were the headsets and once you plug them in, you can listen to several styles of music. Now there was a time when you could listen to the conversation between the pilot and the tower. The tower communicated to the pilot at the important parts of the flight, like clearing them for takeoff, or landing. And then you could also hear the pilot communicating throughout the flight.

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