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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

I was in Georgia a few years ago when a friend said to me, "You know who one of the best football teams in our state is?" And I said, "No, who would that be?" He said, "The Georgia School for the Deaf." That caught me by surprise. I wasn't expecting a school for the deaf to be football champions. He said, "Man, when we played them when I was in high school, you always had to get up for that game. They were always the toughest." And I began to think, "How can they play football when you can't hear the signals being called; when they can't hear the plays being called. How would you play football?" He said, "Well, they bring their band to every game and they beat the drums and the signals are called through the drumbeat and they feel the signals through their face." Well, I couldn't do that, but they can. They've got radar I don't have because they have faced a challenge I haven't faced.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Think of a name that goes with magic and you'll probably think of Houdini. Harry Houdini was the master of illusion, incredible escapes which made it almost ironic how he died. He defied all kinds of dangers in his life, like the time they tied him in a straight jacket, hung him upside down from the eaves of a tall building and he got away. And then there was the time he escaped from an air-tight tank filled with water. One of the tricks he did was he would often invite people to come up and hit him as hard as they could right in the stomach and he never winced. One day a young athlete volunteered to come up on stage and try it, and he landed his hardest punch in Houdini's stomach, except Houdini wasn't ready for the trick yet, and that blow to the stomach killed him. Now, it wasn't the most dangerous thing he ever faced. He just wasn't ready.

Wednesday, August 9, 2006

So why did the Colonists win the American Revolution? Well, it shouldn't be a surprise if you saw how the Red Coats fought. They fought battles in the old fashion European way - line up in straight rows, the front row shoots, then the next row rotates in while the others reload. Now, the Colonists on the other hand, didn't believe in lines. They just came in from everywhere. Saw those red uniforms all lined up in a rigid row and said, "Oh, nice targets!" Now, the Colonists looked like they were disorganized, but their new way of fighting won a battle.

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

The daughter of our friends was kind enough in her last semester of college to buy a dog. You know what that means? She's out of college now and the dog has moved in with our friends. They inherited Starbuck. It's not coffee - that's a black Labrador retriever, and our friends are learning some very interesting things about this dog. In fact, this dog is stuck like glue to them. My friend told me just the other day that everywhere he goes Starbuck goes, whether you want him to or not. And they'll go in the living room, Starbuck goes there. They'll go into the kitchen, Starbuck goes there. Starbuck doesn't much care where he goes, he just follows his master around, and my friend said sometimes you finally want to say to him, "Hey, listen leave me alone. Don't you have something to do?" He told me, then you look at those big ole eyes looking up at you and it's irresistible. When we got a dog I had the same experience. See, we understand the dog's value system now. The dog doesn't care where he is, he just wants to be where his master is.

Monday, August 7, 2006

It was one of those unforgettable, milestone moments for our family. Our firstborn child was holding her firstborn child. What a moment! And we got to join them in the delivery room only moments after the little guy's arrival. And I knew this presented a shocking development. My wife was a grandmother! Can you believe it? Me, living with a grandmother! Yes, I was living in denial. And now that she's been a grandmother more than once, I'm finally going to have to accept the disturbing reality. I - I am a grandfather!

Friday, August 4, 2006

I keep telling my wife that I'm expecting Tarzan or George of the Jungle to come swinging through our house any time now. She's set up a corner of the house as her own personal little jungle to accommodate the new guests in our house - our orchids. My wife has found some sources for orchids that are pretty reasonable, and she's really been enjoying collecting some in recent weeks. They're very stately. They come in some beautiful shades of lavender, purple, red, yellow. (Now, please don't write to us and ask us about orchids. We're just learning about them.) I will tell you that my favorite gardener is doing her best to create the kind of conditions those delicate flowers are used to; warmth in the day, cooler temps at night, light, pure water, humidity. Orchids are tropical plants and they're often found in out-of-the-way places; which poses a fascinating scenario: millions of these spectacular flowers over many centuries, displaying this exotic beauty where no one may have ever seen it.

Thursday, August 3, 2006

Our family has had the wonderful privilege of spending some unforgettable ministry days on some Indian Reservations in the Southwest and when you're there, you do a lot of driving. The vehicle of choice there is not a car. No, you want a truck. See, the roads there are of, shall we say, uneven quality. Many places are only accessible by roads that are steep and bumpy, and it's a major challenge to the durability of any vehicle - or passenger for that matter. The radio stations in that area have advertised lots of trucks and they've used one phrase to promote the quality of their truck. This macho voice comes on and says, "It's reservation tested!

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Some of our fun family memories are the days when I would read stories to my kids. And I did my best to bring those old stories to life. I remember one of their favorites was Winnie the Pooh, so we had Winnie the Pooh and Piglet and Christopher Robin. Oh, and of course, Eeyore. Remember the donkey in Winnie the Pooh? He's the one who usually managed to see the dark side of everything. There always seemed to be something wrong in Eeyore's world.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

I'm an early riser in our family, so it's not uncommon for me to be in the bathroom around 6 a.m., alone and the only one awake. I go through my routine very quietly, so one morning when I was half awake, I was startled when I heard the gentle strains of a song. I had never heard this in the bathroom before. I recognized the song - "It's a Small World After All." Well, here I am in this already dazed condition, I couldn't figure out where the music was coming from. Is there a radio on? No radio. An alarm? No. Did somebody leave a music box in here? No music box. I searched high and low. Finally, I found out where it was coming from. Believe it or not, the song was coming from the roll of toilet tissue. Yes, my wife had rigged the tissue with this little device that plays a song every time you roll that thing. You say, "Oh, no." That's nothing. Downstairs in the main bathroom, it plays the "Star Spangled Banner." That music was very unexpected, but it did get my attention, and I have to admit it brightened up a bleary time of day.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

I never really liked TV game shows, until my son got me interested in one. It comes on after the evening news, which is what I watch on television. Maybe you have seen it - Jeopardy. What an appropriate title for a show that comes on right after the world news. There are three contestants who are given several categories, ranging from U.S. Presidents to Cat Food. First, a contestant picks a dollar value question, and the host gives the answer to the question in that category. Then the three contestants vie to see who can give the right question first, because the right answer is usually a question (if you understand that). Some of them do very well and they win lots of money. I saw one man who won fifty thousand dollars, but others just fold. I said to my son. "Look at some of those people. They wind up in a hole with their money. How do they get on the show?" My compassionate son reminded me, "Dad, it's hard to come up with right answers when you have all that pressure on you."

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