Friday, February 15, 2008

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Power - that's what mattered most to Napoleon. He wanted power, and he got it. Under his leadership, the armies of France won some stunning victories. They extended control well beyond their borders, but that wasn't enough for Napoleon. He knew there was one thing, one force that stood in his way. It is said that one day he gathered all his top officers together around this large table. Laid across that table was a map of Europe with a big red spot on it. That spot was England. Pounding his fist on the table, Napoleon raged: "If it weren't for that red spot, I could have it all!"

Friday, February 8, 2008

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We were waiting at a stoplight, just across the street from some railroad tracks. The gates by the track were up and no lights were flashing. There was no train coming. But just beyond the railroad crossing was one of those little rail inspection vehicles, fitted with the wheels that allow them to ride on the tracks. On the side it said, "Union Pacific." But believe me, this was no train. Suddenly, we heard this obnoxious and continuous honking on a horn that sounded like a train horn. The little vehicle wanted to proceed through the railroad crossing, and he was nowhere big enough to trigger the gates or the lights so the traffic would stop. So the operator just kept leaning on the horn as he passed through the intersection, hoping we would all stop for him as we would for a train. We did stop, but we weren't fooled. This was no train. This was a train wannabe!

Friday, February 1, 2008

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Chaco Culture National Historical Park - it's situated in a remote corner of New Mexico. It's a place where a thousand years ago, the ancient ancestors of some of today's Indian tribes enjoyed this thriving civilization. They were, as a recent article in USA Today reported, "astronomically observant." For modern visitors, it's still a great spot to be astronomically observant; a place where you can see the heavens without the interference of the artificial light that's all around us much of the time. Several years ago, a woman came to the visitor's center desk to report something remarkable that she'd seen in the sky. The ranger held his breath for another "UFO sighting," only to be surprised by the woman's excited description of a "lane of white powder" she said that she had seen spanning the heavens above her campsite. The ranger had the great pleasure of informing this lady that, for the first time in her life, she had actually seen the Milky Way.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

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When our kids were growing up, the early morning shift around our house was particularly exciting. I was getting ready for a full day, three kids were scrambling to have what they needed for school, my wife was playing maid, chef, valet, and chauffeur. In the rush, a lot of our communication was basically non-verbal. For example, one morning I was shaving and thinking through this endless list of things I had to do that day - all the Lord's work, of course. I was mulling over a sermon, radio programs, an important appointment that day, an event I was planning, and my son popped in. Now, I must have succeeded in telegraphing how much I had on my mind (The Lord's work, remember?); he disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. Then, as I was praying about all the Lord's work I had to do that day, I remembered an important decision my son had to make that day, one that he probably needed to talk to his father about. I had just missed the Lord's work.

Monday, January 21, 2008

I was speaking at a Bible conference, set right near the shore of a beautiful lake. I was responsible for speaking about 18 times in six days, so I was a pretty busy boy. But I did something that would make my wife proud, even in spite of how busy I was. I took time to smell the flowers; well, at least to admire the flowers. I'm partially colorblind, but even I was struck by these rich purple flowers blooming all over this sprawling vine in the garden outside my window. The flowers seemed to be everywhere in this garden. I asked someone from the conference what I was looking at, and he told me it's a Vinca vine. He said they had transplanted that vine from a pot to the soil of this garden. And I was told a Vinca vine doesn't produce any flowers when it's in a pot - only when you plant it in the ground.

Friday, January 18, 2008

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Kaitlin just lost her long battle for life. She was born with a defective valve in her heart, and that weakness in her heart pursued her through her all-too-short life. Although she had multiple surgeries and times of physical limitation, she had a positive spirit and, often, a pretty normal life. And then, after seventeen years, that heart just gave out. They said her only hope was a heart transplant before that, and she eventually got one, but it just didn't work out for her. In her last weeks, she sometimes battled just to breathe, but she never stopped fighting. And in Kaitlin's dying, her aunt - a relatively young woman herself - learned a powerful lesson about life.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

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When historian Stephen Ambrose wrote the bestseller about their amazing adventure, he appropriately titled it Undaunted Courage. It's one of the many accounts of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the daring group who explored America's new Louisiana Purchase 200 years ago. As they made their way along the Missouri River, traveling from St. Louis all the way to the Pacific Ocean, most every bend in the river revealed many sights and wildlife that no white man had ever seen. One of the many critical moments on their two-year expedition was the point in Montana where they encountered a fork in the Missouri River. There was no map to guide them, and a wrong choice could exhaust their resources on a very long mistake. The river to the right was muddy like the Missouri had been. The crew wanted to go that way. But Captain Lewis and Captain Clark assessed the situation, and led their reluctant men down the left fork. When the expedition reached the massive waterfalls that Indian friends had told them they would find, they all knew they had chosen the right way.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

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Birds had moved into the vent in the exhaust fan of our kitchen range while we were on vacation. They set up their little nest and made themselves at home. And, man, were they noisy neighbors! The nest was so huge it made the fan unworkable. And some lovely spiders were hanging down from the hood on the stove. Our problem was that trying to remove that nest might have killed that nest full of baby birds. Well, we couldn't see them, but we could sure hear them when they were hungry! So, we waited until Mom and Dad bird took the babies out. A couple of weeks later, after we were sure they were gone, I got a long stick and I proceeded to rake out the rest. But when we removed the nest, we discovered a little surprise; actually, a big, fat surprise. There was the fattest bird we'd ever seen, sitting in the nest. As my wife went to get gloves and a box, he got away. But it took a major earthquake to get that bird out of his nest!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

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My wife and I were on a flight headed for a speaking commitment and I was in the window seat working on my messages. She was in the aisle seat with headphones on, listening to one of the airline entertainment channels. And, man, was she laughing! Which made it a little hard to focus on my work. Finally, I asked her what she was listening to; what she was laughing at. It was actually Bill Cosby talking about life at 50, including this hilarious description of an all too familiar experience - getting up to get something from another room, forgetting what you went in there for, going back and sitting down, and then remembering what it was, and so on. You forget and you wander. My wife was laughing because she says that's us. Well, I don't know if it's because my brain is fuller than ever or because my memory is going, but there's a lot I don't remember these days. You may say, "Well, yeah, that's a problem for you old people." Actually, memory loss is a problem for all ages.

Monday, January 7, 2008

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It was #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and then a major motion picture - the story of one of the most famous race horses of all time, Seabiscuit. While many of us may not be excited about horse racing, the story, set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, illustrates some things pretty inspiring. Seabiscuit was the son of a champion but definitely not like his father. He had been forced to run with better horses so they would gain confidence by beating him. When he raced, he did what he was trained to do - lose. Because of the poor treatment Seabiscuit received, he became an angry, almost uncontrollable horse. Until he was given a chance by a trainer that many considered to be too old and a young man most thought was too big to be a jockey - a man blind in one eye and bitter from his parents' abandonment.

But Seabiscuit thrived in the care of people who believed in him and became one of the greatest horses of all time, along with his jockey. The trainer sees in the horse something that others have missed. He says when Seabiscuit's eventual owner is deciding whether to buy this apparent loser, "You don't throw a life away just because it's been banged up a little." And when the trainer wants to fire his jockey, the owner reminds him, "You don't throw a life away just because it's been banged up a little."