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Thursday, March 23, 2006

It was so dramatic that the cable news networks just kept replaying the video. A mother and her baby were trapped in a burning building. Some people saw the mother leaning out of the second story window with her baby in her arms, desperately trying to save him from both the smoke and the fire. The news video showed three people standing directly beneath that window, ready to catch the infant. It was an agonizing choice for that mother. If she held onto her baby, if she let him go, either way she risked his life. Finally, painfully, she released her baby and dropped him toward the people waiting underneath. It was breathtaking to see one man catch that little guy in his hands. It just so happens that he plays softball and he's a catcher. That baby's fine because a mother made a hard but life-saving choice.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Often it was the highlight of my day. My wife led me to believe that it might have been the highlight of our toddler son's day, too. She told me that the little guy heard my car pull into the driveway each night and that was his signal to go running for the door that I always used. As I opened that door, I was often greeted by a cute little guy charging my direction and calling out one word at the top of his lungs, "DA!" He couldn't manage "Daddy" or "Dada" yet, but I knew he was calling my name.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

Goodbye, Chicago! Hello, New Jersey! It was time for our first major move as a young family. Our ministry was pretty consuming, even back then, so we looked for the most inexpensive moving help that we could find. We found a private moving company owned by a friend. Tom showed up with one other guy and they did a great job navigating our earthly possessions down this narrow apartment staircase. Some days later, we met them on the other end. The problem was that we were facing an even more challenging staircase to get to our new second-floor apartment. Probably the greatest challenge of all was our refrigerator. It was a heavy old bear - I mean, even to try to move it across the floor. But Tom said, "I'll take care of it." He proceeded to strap that refrigerator on his muscular back and carry it up that narrow staircase all by himself. All I could do was lamely yell, "Go, Tom, go!"

Friday, March 3, 2006

For the most part, spring is a season we really look forward to; everything's blooming and colorful. Unfortunately, though, spring isn't just flowers - it's floods! Some folks who live by rivers and streams must hold their breath a little each spring. Every year we see vivid pictures of whole areas submerged under flood waters, and we hear interviews with victims who have lost many of their possessions. But invariably, you will hear those victims say, "But we're thankful that at least all of us are safe." You know it's true - things can be replaced - people can't. In the spring of '97, it was Kentucky's turn to get hit by major flooding. On the news they showed a list on the wall - a list that was pretty moving to see. At the top were these words: "Missing people," then the names of loved ones who were missing in the flood. But some of those names had a beautiful five-letter word scrawled over them: "Found."

Thursday, March 2, 2006

We have three children, two boys and a girl. Our boys had the privilege of growing up with a sister. Did they always get along with their sister? Silly question! Of course not. But if it ever looked as if anyone was going to hurt their sister, stand back folks! I mean, they even insisted on the right to approve the guys she dated; they wanted veto power. Almost no one was good enough for their sister. They didn't want her to be with anyone who wasn't going to be good for her. I guess if you're a brother with a sister, you know what I'm talking about - this strong instinct to protect your sister or eventually any woman you care about, from anything that could hurt her.

Wednesday, March 1, 2006

When our friends heard that our family had been invited to Alaska for a week of ministry, they were all excited for us. They said, "Oh, it's beautiful, you're going to love it! When are you going?" "February." "Oh." See, I get invited to places like Florida and Arizona in the summer; Alaska in the dead of winter. We had a wonderful week, but the time came for my wife and kids to fly home because they had to get back to school, and I stayed for several more days of ministry. We were out on the Kenai Peninsula, in an area that felt fairly remote. We arrived at this small airport one night to rendezvous with our pilot. Now, Dick was a missionary pilot, trained by Moody Bible Institute's top-flight pilot's school and he was experienced in flying into many remote areas of Alaska. But that night his cargo was the people I love most. My first cause for a little worry was his request to help him push the plane out of the hangar and onto the runway. It was icy, and I had never pushed my plane into position before. I didn't like that runway. It was covered with thick, deeply-rutted ice from one end to the other. And at the end of that fairly short runway was a big stand of tall trees you could run into. Oh yeah, and it was heavily overcast - no moon, no stars. Well, I helped my wife and three children crowd into Dick's little Cessna, I waved good-bye as they started bouncing and maneuvering down that icy runway. I really didn't like the conditions, but I was okay because I really trusted the pilot.

Monday, February 27, 2006

This may come as quite a surprise to you, but there were a lot of rumors in college that I was behind many of the practical jokes and pranks that happened while I was there. That's hard to imagine, isn't it? It wouldn't come as a total surprise to some of those folks that I finally ended up in the penitentiary; Alcatraz, in fact. Fortunately, my sentence was only about four hours. Actually, we had taken some young people out to that famous prison in the middle of San Francisco Bay to do a special radio program. Of course, it's been some years since any prisoners were held there on what they called The Rock, but it is still quite a place to see. While we were there, we experienced the awful claustrophobia of being locked in one of those little cells and the isolation of being in solitary confinement. For the closing segment of the program, we walked out of one of the prison gates and down to the rocks outside that overlook the bay. One of the young people with us was walking out with me, and he made quite an observation. "Just think," he said, "there was only a wall between them and all this beauty."

Thursday, February 23, 2006

You've probably never heard of the "Pig War" between the United States and Great Britain because it's a war that almost happened. That war almost started in 1859 on the disputed San Juan Island between Canada and the State of Washington. In the midst of that tension between England and the U. S., an American settler named Lyman Cutler shot a pig who was rooting through his potato patch. Unfortunately, that pig belonged to Englishman Charles Griffin. That incident was like a match to a powder keg in this already inflamed situation. For 12 years, there was serious hostility and tension between the U.S. and British authorities - over a pig. Finally, General Winfield Scott brokered a peace deal. So, fortunately, the only fatality in this conflict was a pig.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Our granddaughter was almost three when her parents took her to the place that blew her little mind - Disneyland. She loves Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh and Cinderella, and this was where they live! For many months afterward, she continued to talk about the experiences she had there. But it was her first reaction that was the most priceless of all. They got off the tram and walked onto the main street of Disneyland with a castle in front of them and Disney characters greeting them. Her reaction wasn't verbal, so it's a little hard to convey it. But imagine a dark-haired, dark-eyed, round-faced little girl stopped in her tracks with her eyes wide like saucers, her hands suddenly covering her mouth, and only one audible reaction - gasp!

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Your 40th birthday; it's one of those milestone birthdays. For many, not an especially welcome milestone. I've heard many women, in particular, who are dreading hitting that 40 mark. My wife handled her fortieth like it was no big deal; no trauma, no counseling, no plastic surgery, no sobbing. I only hope I can handle my fortieth as gracefully. (I guess it's a good thing I'm not talking about integrity today.) It was our son who threw the curve ball in all of this. He was around 12 years old, and a few weeks after Mom's big 4-0, he announced a calculation he had, for some reason, just concocted. He said, "Hey Ma, did you know you've been alive for 14,686 days?" Forty years she could handle, but 14,686 days? That sounds prehistoric!

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