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November 30, 2023

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If you live on the East Coast, there is one word that's pretty sure to get your attention - hurricane. Yep! I'll tell you, Hurricane Hugo was one of those mega storms that really got our attention. You could watch the news for several nights before Hugo arrived. And they would show you this cyclonic circle inching across the weather map toward, well at that point, an uncertain destination. Half a million people were evacuated from Florida to the Carolinas, not knowing where that destructive little circle on the map was going to land. Finally, it became clear that Hugo's 130-mile-an-hour winds were going to slam ashore at Charleston, South Carolina.

November 29, 2023

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It was a crazy Christmas at our house! Everybody in our family, three generations, is really excited about giving gifts to the others, and getting them. Well, sometimes our festivities aren't quite like "peace on earth." Such was this particular Christmas. The chatter was loud, the laughter was hearty, and the buzz was intense. Or, in the case of a two-year old grandchild at the time, it was just confusing. My wife had this finely-tuned grandma's radar, and she noticed that our little grandson seemed a little dazed by all this happy Christmas crossfire. So you know what? She just quietly slipped to the floor. (We didn't even notice.) She got down where he was and began working patiently with him on assembling a toy he had just opened. That precious scene had been going on for a few minutes I think before any of us even noticed in the chaos. But there was Grandma, quietly creating this island of sanity in a sea of craziness.

November 28, 2023

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One of the milestone days of any kid's life is the day they get their driver's license. It's usually cause for great excitement and celebrating. It's been about a century, I think, since I first got mine. They traded in the horse and buggy. But not long ago, I was a teenager again, celebrating getting my license. No, I hadn't lost it. The law didn't take it away. My license had expired, and the motor vehicle department had mailed my renewal form when my wife and I were on the road during a time of extended ministry.

November 27, 2023

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Over the years, there were two words that could really stir up some action at our house. They go like this, "Let's romp!" Yeah, you have to understand I was a father of two sons, and that meant that Dad is ready for some "rough housing" with one or maybe two sons. But I learned I had to be careful, because then one day they got to be my size. So I didn't say that much any more. No.

November 24, 2023

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Our son-in-law was visiting his grandfather in Florida, with a nice Florida view outside his bedroom window - grapefruit trees. It wasn't all a happy view though. Many of the grapefruit were actually rotting on the ground. His grandfather wasn't up to harvesting them anymore. So those grapefruit got all ready to be picked and no one came, and they dropped to the ground and died.

November 23, 2023

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I used to work with our high school football team quite a bit, and their practices were in full swing. And I was talking with one of the soon to be freshman football players, and he said, "Ron, it seems like just yesterday we were having our first practices back in the summer." And I talked to some seniors, and then they said, "Ron, weren't we just freshmen? How did we get here so fast?"

November 22, 2023

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Millions of Americans are on the move right now. It's part of the annual Thanksgiving migration. They'll get to experience turkey on the table today and turkeys in those traffic jams!

November 21, 2023

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You can find it at a football game. You can find it in a concert. There are thousands of people drawn to a gathering, and they're talking excitedly about some star they've come to see or hear. Hands and voices are raised in praise and all eyes are on the star, or the stars. In fact, if you want to get people really agitated, use the name of their favorite musician in vain. Yeah, or say something negative about their favorite athlete. Uh-huh. I mean, people who might be relatively passive about minor issues like nuclear war, or abortion, or people starving to death are majorly aggressive about their heroes. I mean, we're excited about our favorite musician, or politician, or sports star, even our favorite spiritual celebrity...maybe too excited.

November 20, 2023

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You know, flying commercial airlines isn't as much fun as it used to be. A lot of people who have to fly seem to agree with that. There are overbooked flights, and there's long lines at security, and canceled flights, and crowded flights, and equipment problems, and all kinds of frustrating delays. If you don't like something about the way the airline is performing, guess who usually gets all the grief? I've seen it happen at the airport over and over again. That poor ticket agent.

November 17, 2023

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Honest, we really didn't mean to be in northern Kentucky on Kentucky Derby weekend. But obviously, thousands of people did! In trying to avoid flooding as we traveled, that's exactly where we managed to be. So there we were in the middle of rampant Derby Fever. I didn't bet on anybody, and I refuse to wear one of those floppy hats.

November 16, 2023

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Three New York City boys broke into a zoo there, and one of them climbed into the polar bear area to swim in the moat. He was attacked by those bears. He was brutally killed. I was intrigued by an interview with the Park's Commissioner of New York City who said afterwards, "You know, bears are portrayed to children as friendly animals, even as cuddly animals. We've got Winnie the Pooh, Paddington Bear, and Smokey the Bear. But the Park's Commissioner went on to say, "Actually, they're carnivorous killers." He was right. I mean look, the image of bears is cuddly; the reality is deadly. And not just in bear country.

November 15, 2023

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I had just finished speaking for a Christian leaders' gathering that was part of the countdown to a Franklin Graham Festival. The setup team there was in their early days of working together on this massive mobilization. The team leader thought it would be a good idea to get his team together for a few minutes after the meeting ended, and he invited me to join them. Then he handed me a cluster of helium balloons tied together. Suddenly, I felt like I'd gone from speaker to circus clown. And, you know, I've read Winnie the Pooh stories to our kids enough that I couldn't help but picture Pooh Bear being carried into the sky by a bunch of balloons like that.

November 14, 2023

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Many of the world's greatest dramas are not on a stage or a screen. They're played out in that quadrennial spectacle we call the Olympics. Maybe you remember the year, many years ago now really, that Britain's representative in the 400-meter race, Derrick Redman, began to falter and went down in the back stretch with a torn right hamstring. As the medical attendants were approaching, Derrick Redman was fighting his way to his feet. Now, he's limping along in anguish. Hopping, desperately trying to finish the race. He knew he wouldn't win; he was just trying to finish.

November 13, 2023

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Well, I'd been asked to speak at an adult couples thing at our church. And they did this auction sort of deal. It was sort of a "Let's Make a Deal game." I think some people call it a White Elephant Auction or something like that. It's the kind of game where you go to your garage and you get something you really want to throw away, and you wrap it up in real pretty paper and you bring it to the auction. And what happens is this: One person goes up and has to pick one of those packages, and they open it and then they have it. From that point on everyone can either take an unwrapped package and take their chances on that, or they can trade for something that's already been unwrapped that looks interesting.

November 10, 2023

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I suspect that children go to secret seminars on how to manipulate parents. They are so good at it, so early! Especially at bedtime. You notice? The object seems to be to squeeze out a few more minutes before you have to go to sleep, right? Let's see, there's water, and then there's praying. And then, "Let's pray some more." Who can argue with that one? There's a sudden interest in talking about things; they are suddenly communicators. Then, of course, the ever popular "monsters in my closet."

November 9, 2023

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Oh, it was a great time to be traveling out East! I got to be there at cherry blossom time. I was where those pink beauties were popping out everywhere! I'm so glad. I mean, wherever we went there they were. One of the gals on the Weather Channel was broadcasting from Washington, DC, and she had this beautiful backdrop of these exploding cherry blossoms all around the Jefferson Memorial.

November 8, 2023

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When I'm in a new city, I don't usually make visiting a local cemetery one of my sightseeing priorities. But I did in a ministry trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia. I visited the cemetery where 121 passengers of the doomed Titanic are buried; many with their names still unknown.

November 7, 2023

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The five members of the Hutchcraft family have the same last name, of course, except for our married daughter, but that's pretty much where the sameness ends. And I think it's good that we're different.

November 6, 2023

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It wasn't the big one, but it was pretty big. It was that 6.6 earthquake that rocked Los Angeles some years ago. It was 4:31 A.M. and the ground began to tremble underneath Southern California again. And those who watched it will not forget the picture of what collapsed; those Northridge Meadows Apartments where 16 people died in those apartments. But in the midst of the Northridge tragedy, you heard the word miracle a lot. Maria Ballesteros was one who survived that apartment collapse and she was rescued. And she claimed she knew why. She said there were 50 pictures hanging on her wall and 49 of them were destroyed. But one was still there when the shaking was all over. Maria said this, "The one of the Lord was the only one left hanging."

November 3, 2023

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Monday was not a favorite day for our local high school football players during the season. No, that was the day they watched the film of last Saturday's game. Oh, it's nice to see what you did right, of course, but see, coaches don't spend much time on that. Most of the coach's attention is focused on what you did wrong or what you could do better. And so, on Monday you may get yelled at, critiqued, pushed to improve.

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