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January 25, 2024

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Because I travel so much, I watch the Weather Channel, or something like it, a lot. I just sat back, this one time, in amazement as I watched them track this monster low pressure system moving across the country. By the time it reached the Eastern United States, that low pressure system stretched on the Weather Channel map from the Maritime Provinces in Canada all the way to Mexico! I mean, it was massive! And everywhere it went, it left flooding rains or heavy snows or even violent weather. In Minnesota, for example, this low pressure system registered the lowest barometric pressure ever. All across the eastern half of the country, the news reported massive power outages, cancellations, delays. For millions of Americans, whatever they had planned just didn't happen.

January 24, 2024

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Well, I watched three of our children run on this track that they call "high school senior." Oh we know about the disease. It's a creeping disease called senioritis. I've seen it for years with other teenagers, and then finally we got to watch it in our own home. It begins with the sense of "Okay, I'm a senior now! High school is my past. I don't care about high school any more even though I have another year." At best a senior just sort of slacks off until graduation. Or at worst, he or she becomes irresponsible and maybe even destructive. Senioritis? It doesn't bring out the best in anybody at any age.

January 23, 2024

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Jerry and I were best friends in high school, and then we didn't see each other for several years. But we were able to get together again when we found out that he and his wife had moved to an apartment in New York City. He was training to become a 747 pilot for a major airline back when that was a brand new plane. Karen and I went in to have dinner at their apartment, and we realized that Jerry and Gail were making the big bucks. They had an exclusive apartment, expensive furniture and a brand new Cadillac. Jerry took us down to the high-security garage to show the Caddy to us with a lot of pride. A couple months later, they drove out to our little apartment in a New Jersey suburb. We didn't live in a fancy neighborhood, but you know, it wasn't a bad neighborhood. Jerry had to park his Cadillac where we parked our un-Cadillac - on the street. We prepared a nice dinner, but Jerry couldn't enjoy it. He couldn't enjoy the conversation we tried to have after dinner. The whole time he was a nervous wreck. Every five minutes or so he would leave the conversation, go over to the window, and check on his Cadillac! I assured him it would be OK, but no, no. He spent the whole night worrying about losing his expensive car. At first, I thought Jerry owned a Cadillac. It turned out that a Cadillac owned Jerry!

January 22, 2024

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It was one of the dumbest things I'd done in a long time. It was years ago. I was involved in this intense ministry on a Native American reservation. That was not the dumb thing. What was dumb was, I was missing a lot of sleep but I decided to drive. That was dumb.

January 19, 2024

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Few people captured the American imagination like America's first astronauts. That's why, for many of us, names like John Glenn are on a list of 20th Century heroes. John Glenn was, of course, one of the first men to ride a rocket into space. Then, as a "senior citizen" he amazed the world by doing it again. So when John Glenn gave advice to modern space shuttle astronauts, he's got credentials! I love what he is reported to have told the Columbia astronauts before what turned out to be their last flight. He said, "Hey, don't forget to look out the window!"

January 18, 2024

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My wife and I were out for a Sunday afternoon drive, and we saw a very strange contradiction. There was this church, and there were long stairs leading up to the entrance, and one lady, all alone, at the door. She was trying every door to get in that church and they were all locked. She was frustrated. Now, what was the contradiction? Well, the name of the church - Our Lady of Perpetual Help. My wife said, "You know, this reminds me of a scene I saw when I was in Haiti." She said, "I was right near a church and there was this very gaunt woman, maybe starving to death, and weeping at the door of this church. And she looked like she was desperate to get in and every door was locked. She literally was beating her fists bloody on the door and there was no response."

January 17, 2024

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One of the more special opportunities I've had over the years has been to speak for professional football chapels. I spoke a lot for the New York Giants, and when I was with them, of course, it looked like about 30 New York Giants and one New York Dwarf (that would be me). You can tell who is the speaker in the room, believe me! I did stand out in that group. And people will often say, "Well, what do you talk to them about?" Of course, I had the opportunity to simply present the Gospel. But I did try to use a lot of sport's illustrations and things that will relate to their everyday lives.

January 16, 2024

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So I'm sleeping all night, but something very interesting happens. There are people all over the world making news! The world's different from the time I close my eyes till the time I wake up, and I want to know what's happened during the night. I think a lot of people do. That's probably one of the first things some of us do is make sure we check in with one of the news channels, or check our phone, and maybe check what's on the Internet. I used to have a newspaper that arrived early in the morning, (in the good old days) and at that point I could just go out and get that and check out the headlines! Of course, I liked it better then and I still like it better now, even if it's on my phone, when it's good news, which isn't nearly often enough.

January 15, 2024

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OK, so there are more bills to pay than you've got money to pay them. You have to make some choices. What you probably won't do is decide not to pay the electric bill and certain other bills like that. Those bills where, if you don't pay, they can cut off your service. You get this little notice: "If you don't pay your bill right away, your service will be cut off." It's amazing how a service cutoff can help you set your priorities!

January 12, 2024

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Now, I wasn't expecting a goat to be my teacher. But something kind of special happened. A good friend of ours actually helped a new baby goat come into the world.

January 11, 2024

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King George and his army must have had a really good laugh. George Washington and his Continental Army had been whipped in battle after battle in their campaign to become independent from Britain. British troops had driven the Americans out of New York City, across the Hudson River, across New Jersey, and finally into Pennsylvania. Then came the winter of 1777, at a place outside of Philadelphia called Valley Forge. Washington's troops faced not only a physical winter there, but an emotional winter. Discouragement and defeat may have been their worst enemies. But General Washington wasn't about to let those enemies win. He fought back by immediately deploying his soldiers to fortify their camp. Then the drills began. A veteran European military officer began to drill those soldiers every day, teaching them a single set of maneuvers rather than the multiple approaches that had just created confusion in the past battles. That winter, they were learning one way of doing things while Washington worked on getting more recruits and building his army into a real fighting force. Many historians believe that the outcome of America's battle for independence was actually decided at Valley Forge more than any battle - because there was an army that came out of Valley Forge to stun the British with major victories. One army went into the winter at Valley Forge - divided, discouraged, demoralized. Another army emerged from that winter. They were unified, they were fortified, they were confident because of what they had done with their winter.

January 10, 2024

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I guess it started when the kids were growing up. You know, it says in the Dad's Job Description, "Must have quarters at all times!" Even now when I travel I still try to carry some quarters, even though we don't need them as often anymore. But I would always make sure that I had enough ones and even fives. You never know when you're going to need a vending machine. Not need; actually want a vending machine. I'm in a hotel, I'm working late and I want a snack or I want a cold drink. So I go through the familiar ritual: put the dollar bill in, then the quarters, hit the selection button, and something good comes out. At least it had better! I mean, it's pretty annoying if you put your money in there and nothing comes out. I probably wouldn't put any more money in that machine, would you?

January 9, 2024

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Men and women are different. Aren't you glad you're listening today? Now, that is not exactly news worth tuning in for, but trying to understand those differences, oh we could talk about that for a long time. For example, one of those differences shows up when I can remember my wife and I were driving long distances across this country. I can sum up the difference pretty succinctly. She wanted to stop and see things; I wanted to get there! My honey would see signs for an interesting attraction or the kind of store she liked and she'd suggest we stop and check it out. Not me. Hey, we have a destination. We've got to get to it girl! Who wants to waste time along the way? Guy-think!

January 8, 2024

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Our daughter was driving through town with our four-year-old grandson in the back seat. As she passed a local senior housing facility, she said, "Honey, that's where my grandfather lived until he died." At that point, our four-year-old jumped in with a respectful correction of his Mommy's choice of words. "Until Jesus called him home," he said. There was a pause - and then our grandson added - "Someday Jesus will call me home, too."

January 5, 2024

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We'd stopped for gas next to an Interstate that takes you at 75 MPH across long miles of desert. I love the west. That's where I saw the sign: "Dead End - 3 Miles Ahead." I thought, "I wonder if anyone ever said, 'I'm not sure that's true of that old dirt road. I think I'll drive that way and check it out for myself.'" Nope, We got back on the Interstate, and of course, I had to see where that other road went. Sure enough, that bumpy road ended three miles later in the middle of nothing in the desert...right next to a road that speeds you to a lot of great destinations.

January 4, 2024

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A long time ago, my wife and I were vacationing in a mid-south state, and she convinced me to explore this back road. It was just marked "Erbie." It's a town. We never did get to see it, though. For the first time that day I looked at my gas gauge (duh!) and the needle was on the big red E.

January 3, 2024

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It's really hard for me to drive by Civil War battlefields without stopping. I'm a history buff, and I like to stop at those things! Now, when I say Civil War, I might have to explain that to some of my friends, because if you grew up in the South, they say there was nothing civil about it. That's what my wife always told me. It was the War Between the States. At least that's what they taught my wife at school. One of the battlefields that I've driven by a lot is in New Market, Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley.

January 2, 2024

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You can become fairly addicted to a predictable television adventure series. A lot of them have a formula. You know how it's going to go. There's a victim you like; there's a villain you don't like, and there's a predicament. And you want to see the predicament resolved, but what if the predicament isn't resolved? You see this wrong sense of values as it goes down to three minutes, two minutes, one minute. You know it's going to end very quickly and it's getting worse. The villain you don't like is winning. The victim you really do like, well, how are they going to fix it? And finally, one of the heroes appears on the scene and, suddenly, it's resolved.

January 1, 2024

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Class reunions are always enlightening, and one thing is obvious after 20 years - people change. Yeah! I was a pretty big boy back in high school. I mean, there were a lot of pounds on this boy, but not quite as many when I went to that reunion. And, you know what? I'm glad they saw the new me. Less of me!

December 29, 2023

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Oh, for goodness sake, it was the polar vortex again! There I was, digging out the sweaters again, and turning up the thermostat to help the Propane Dealers Retirement Fund. And hoping the weatherman was wrong about snow and ice.

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