Monday, January 8, 2007

One day our ministry got a call from a lady who identified herself as being with a bank that we don't even do business with. She said, "The wire transfer has not come through yet" and she wanted us to call her back with more information. Interestingly enough, no such lady works at the bank she mentioned. The folks at the bank told us that things like this can actually be part of a very clever scam that crooks use to get your money. They lead you to believe that a donation is coming through; they just need your bank routing number. But that information might be all they need to access your bank account and get what's in your bank account transferred to their bank account. So you have to be a little careful out there. There are plenty of folks out there who are claiming to give you something, so they can take something!

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

When you're taking a team of Native young people to nine different reservations - often in pretty remote places - you need a combination command post/prayer room/counseling room/supply room on wheels. Our rented RV served all those purposes. Now I'm still getting used to this RV thing. Some of them are like entire civilizations on wheels. They're actually in two zip codes everywhere they go. Ours was a lot simpler, but it did the job. One challenge for me was the distance from the RV to the ground. I think really that there may have been some mix-up at the factory and some NBA player got part of my legs. It looked like a long way to the ground for Mr. Vertically Challenged. But the RV had a cool feature. As I stepped out, a step automatically came up under my dangling foot and helped me land safely every time.

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

I don't mind visiting people in the hospital. I just don't stay in hospitals myself. Visitor - yes. Patient - no. My medical value system sort of works like this: minor surgery is any operation on you, and major surgery is any operation on me. I've actually learned that there's something worse than being a hospital patient myself. It's having one of our grandchildren in the hospital, especially when the treatment means pain. I can take it when I'm the one hurting. It's just hard to take it when it's one of them. A few weeks ago, our ten-month-old grandson had to go to the emergency room in another town, and it wasn't a happy time for the little guy. They had to try multiple times to get a needle into a vein for a blood test. It was excruciating! He was increasingly traumatized by one injection after another and by that big old oxygen mask they kept holding over his nose.

As soon as I got there, I decided there was just one thing I could do that might help. It's a little song I've sung to him since the first times I held him. It's always seemed to calm him down, even when he was unusually upset. So I leaned down so my cheek was touching his cheek and I began to gently sing our little song in his ear. With medical folks continuing their necessary but pretty scary work, he stopped his panic crying and he settled down a lot. I must have stayed there for thirty or forty minutes. I think that song must have nearly driven a couple of nurses cuckoo. But my grandson - well, a little song made a big difference.

Friday, December 29, 2006

I guess you could call it creative architecture. Or you could just call it a big stone in the middle of a high brick wall. I saw this phenomenon when I visited the new station of one of our radio partners recently. The front wall of the station has this big old 230-pound stone, about halfway up the wall in the middle of the bricks. There's no way that could be mistake or an accident. It is, in fact, a message. A masonry contractor offered to do some of the work on the station, and somewhere along the way he thought about a stone like this. He thought about what the Bible says about Jesus being the "chief cornerstone." So he went to the local quarry and found this impressive piece of rock, which he installed in a central spot in the front of the building, with the "chief cornerstone" scripture reference under it. I love the reason he gave for this unusual feature. He said, "You build everything around the cornerstone."

Monday, December 25, 2006

When I was growing up, Christmas was a double-header for me, because my birthday is just a few days before Christmas. Just in case you care, it's on the date that the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane successfully. With all the time I've spend on airplanes in my life, you gotta wonder if that's some kind of destiny. That's also the date of the Battle of the Bulge. Destiny again? But I have never had a complaint about when my birthday is. As a kid, I tried to turn that into an advantage by asking for a gift that would be too much for just Christmas but not for Christmas and your birthday. And besides cleaning up in the gift department, it's just neat to have a birthday at a time when all the world seems to be celebrating. All right, not my birthday obviously, but it's just the best time of the year!

Friday, December 22, 2006

Our family opens our Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve, and I've got to tell you, it's usually one amazing outpouring of love. There is not a member of our family who just runs out to some mall and says, "Oh boy, I gotta get something for her or for him." No, there seems to be this almost scientific process where they say about each person they're buying for, "Now what do I know about what this person? What do they really need? What do they really like?" I think we've even got a couple of sons who evaluate their gift-giving success on the basis of how touched the recipient is - you know, the tear test. And there are always some neat, touching moments.

Everybody really seems to like giving a gift more than receiving it. And though none of us has a lot of money to spend, folks seem to sacrifice, if necessary, to buy or make a gift that's really a gift of love. Now here's a way I could ruin this beautiful scene. My wife or one of the kids gives me the gift that they've carefully thought about and maybe sacrificially paid for. And I get up, walk over to that family member, pull out my wallet and say, "So what do I owe you?" They would say, "Nothing." And I would just keep pushing, "Look, I want to pay for this gift, man. Here, take this money!" They'd be pretty hurt; they'd be pretty ticked. I'm trying to buy what they already paid for as a gift.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

It was our grandson's two-year Christmas, and he was so much fun to watch. One day during the season, his mother unpacked the family Nativity Set for her and her boy to set up, and he loved it. I mean, they put up the manger, and Mary and Joseph, and the angels, and the shepherds. They put out everyone except the one figure they couldn't find - Baby Jesus. Well, our grandson was pretty concerned about this missing person, so Mommy told him that Daddy would look for Baby Jesus when he got home from the office. Hours after that, our grandson heard Daddy coming up the back steps. He ran to the door and greeted his father with an impassioned two-word question, "Where's Jesus?"

Monday, December 18, 2006

Right after Thanksgiving, I made my annual pilgrimage to the Christmas corner of our garage, and I brought out Christmas. We've been accumulating ornaments and decorations for many years now, and it's always a big deal for the family when they make their annual re-entry - all those decorations. The house is alive with Christmas now - for a while. But before very long, I will reverse the exercise, repack everything in their aging boxes, and put them back in storage for another year.

Friday, December 15, 2006

We attended a concert, only to learn that it was being taped for later use as a TV program. The host introduced two other men who were going to sing with him, the accompaniment track started up, and they launched into the song, cameras were rolling. I'm not sure what the problem was, but they weren't all singing the same song, and that's a problem! Oops! The host stopped the song, looked up at the control booth, and he said, "Guys, let's start that one over." You'll never see that on TV. Then he said to the audience, "Good thing this is taped, not live." He was right. I've done plenty of live radio, and I want you to know, live is unforgiving. You blow it, you blew it!

Monday, December 11, 2006

Our friend, Vicki, is one very happy woman. For many years now, she has carried a heavy load of nagging credit card debt. If you've ever been in debt for a while, you know how it always weighs you down like this heavy burden on your back. Well, Vicki recently came into some money through an inheritance, and you know what she did with it! She had a party - a check writing party! All those debts are paid, and you can tell she feels like she just got out of prison!

Friday, December 8, 2006

Matt is 16, and he hates his birthday. At least, that's what he told some of his friends. He said his birthday is always the worst day of the year for him, ever since his sixth birthday. He remembers that like it was yesterday. His mom went out and bought a special cake, invited all his friends to come over for Matt's birthday party, and nobody came. And since there was nobody there for the party, his mom took the cake back to the store. There was no one there to celebrate him.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

I only had 24 hours in Athens, Greece. Well, what am I going to do? Well, I knew what I wanted to see - the Acropolis, and there it is. It's on this hill that dominates the city, and it's there that the ancient Greeks built this incredible temple to their goddess Athena. Even after 20 centuries, I have to tell you, it's still an impressive, imposing structure and it still dominates the city. The Acropolis was the most sacred, most protected, most honored place in all of Athens. In fact, it was a serious crime to violate that temple, as it was in many ancient cultures. Hey, everybody knew the temple got first class treatment because the gods live there.

Monday, December 4, 2006

They often give you one when you check into some sprawling motel complex, or a big theme park, or a large convention facility. It's a map of the place. And for the directionally challenged like me, there's one important thing I look for on that map. It's that "x" and those three very helpful words, "You are here." See, you're not helping me very much by just giving me a drawing of where everything is. In order for me to use that to get where I want to go, I need that one fundamental piece of information - locating exactly where I am right now!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

I have to admit that my wife and I were a little naïve sometimes in the months right after we were married. It was obvious the day this fast-talking vacuum cleaner salesman showed up at our apartment door. He showed us this high-powered machine that did everything but the laundry. He lured us with impressive demonstrations, he offered us an easy payment plan, and a deal (of course) that we had to act on immediately. Well, Mr. Newlywed, here, eagerly signed on the line. "All right! Hey, I am the proud owner of a high-tech vacuum cleaner! About five times more vacuum cleaner than we could possibly need!" By the next day, I wanted out, but I couldn't back out then. In my enthusiasm, I had simply left out the most important ingredient in the decision.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

During holiday seasons in America, and especially at Thanksgiving, you can actually call the Butterball Turkey Hotline. And, yes, you can get an answer to whatever turkey questions you may have. A famous news commentator said that they had monitored that hotline last Thanksgiving, and one lady called and she said, "I've had this turkey in my freezer for 23 years. Can I use it?" This is a true story! The man on the hotline said, "Well, if your freezer has been set on zero degrees the whole time and it hasn't been defrosted, then the turkey is probably okay. Maybe the taste isn't, though." Well, the lady decided she wouldn't use the turkey after all. She gave it to her church.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

One of our common send-offs to people is, "Hey, keep in touch!" Well, today we can do that better than ever. Just take telephones, for example. We've got them everywhere - for better or worse. Many of us have phones in several rooms at home or wireless phones so we can take a call or make a call anywhere from the backyard to the bathroom. When I get on the plane, there's a phone in front of me. And, of course, with cell phones we can be in contact with people, and they with us, virtually anywhere. Take a businessperson or an investor, for example. He or she can be in contact from home, in their car, at their office, or as they're walking into the grocery store. Actually, one of the secrets of successful people is doing a good job of keeping in touch.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Today's children have barely even heard of the disease, but when I was a kid, it was every parent's greatest fear for their child - that crippling, sometimes deadly, disease called polio. I can distinctly remember how my mother didn't even want me to be in big crowds because of how polio seemed to spread so quickly. But then along came the vaccine. We all got our shots and we were immune to polio. Since then, there are a lot more shots like that for everything from smallpox, to tetanus, to the flu. And they all work basically on the same principle: in essence, you get a little of the virus injected into your system so that your body will build up an immunity to what could otherwise cripple you or kill you. That kind of immunization can save your life. But, on the other hand, immunization can be really dangerous - even deadly.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not only the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but apparently, he was a creative practical joker, too. The story is told of one horrendous - although clever - practical joke that he played one time. He just wrote a short, unsigned telegram - all in fun - to 12 of the best known men in England. The anonymous message was the same - only six words - six scary words, "All is discovered. Flee at once." As the story goes, within 24 hours not one of those men could be found.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

I don't have much time for TV. But when I do, I don't usually watch gymnastics. But some time ago they showed a sports feature about gymnastics on my plane flight. As usual, I had too much to do to get the headset that carries the audio, but I did occasionally glance up at the video part. It was a gymnastics meet between the U.S. and Russia. You can probably guess who I was rooting for. Now, I couldn't hear any commentary, but I saw some impressive performances by these young athletes. I also saw an occasional replay. But every time they did a replay, all they showed was the gymnast's mistakes, anything that she was marked down for, and they kept replaying it. They had executed some great moves, but no, we don't go over those - only their mistakes.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

The Titanic could not miss that iceberg. These days, you can't miss the Titanic. Ever since they found the unsinkable ship where it sank two and a half miles beneath the sea, there's been a rekindled fascination with the Titanic. As they have studied the wreckage with the latest underwater technology, they have discovered some surprising new information about what happened to the grandest ocean liner in history. It was the equivalent of four city blocks in length! Now most people have probably pictured the Titanic plowing into this huge iceberg and opening up a gaping hole in the bottom. But now we know that the Titanic basically just sideswiped that iceberg; in fact, many passengers didn't even know anything had happened. And it wasn't some gaping hole that sank the unsinkable ship. It was what one newspaper called, "small wounds that doomed the Titanic." There were six relatively small punctures in the hull - "pin pricks" according to a TV special on the subject. Here's a ship that was 95,000 square feet in size, and it was sunk by little leaks that, all put together, would have been about twelve square feet - about the size of a door!