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Thursday, January 12, 2006

When our kids were growing up, it was hard to find a ride at the amusement park you could get us all to ride. We have roller coaster lovers and roller coaster no-way-ers, for example. But there was one we all liked to do - the bumper cars. You know, those little electric cars inside that fenced-in area. They turn them on, and everyone starts out together, then you start speeding around that circle. Some end up spinning out, going backwards, going forward, intentionally or accidentally running into other cars - especially those you love. Each one of us would each get into our little hot rod. We'd basically start out heading the same direction, but in no time we were heading in five different directions and occasionally bumping into each other. Sound like any family you know?

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

If you're looking for a great real estate deal, don't go looking in the metropolitan New York area. Housing in the metro New York area is just really expensive. When people from another part of the country start looking at home prices there, they usually get a paralyzing case of sticker shock. When our friend Rachel and her husband moved to the New York area to serve the Lord, they went through that cost-of-living trauma. Rachel was talking one day to my wife about this and it led her to tell about a minor, but particularly irritating, frustration she had with their house. It was about that pipe in the corner of the dining room! Rachel said, "I have wallpapered the room. I have tried everything to get that dumb pipe to blend in, but nothing works! It's ugly!" Then she paused for a moment and she said, "You know, I told God I'd live in a grass hut in Africa if He called me to, and I meant it! Why can't I live in a house with an ugly pipe in New Jersey?" Then Rachel answered her own question. "I know why." The diagnosis that followed might provide an x-ray of what's going on in you!

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

I used to think flying would be glamorous. When I was a kid, we'd take my Dad to the airport for an occasional business trip, and I used to think, "Man, that's exciting! I wonder if I'll ever do that?" I get to do plenty of that! Sometimes it's a two-hour flight to Chicago, a five-hour flight to the West Coast, and sometimes it's a marathon like 18 hours to Africa or Asia. Now I'm leaving something important and I'm going to something important at the other end. But for most people, the travel time in between is just dead time. Not for this kid. I ask for a window seat where I don't have to do any getting up or passing things. I make my little office nest there and I get tons of work done! For me, that time in between my two important places isn't just headphones, movies, plastic lunches, or reading about life jackets. In fact, there's no phone calls, no interruptions. It's some of my best time to write, create, prepare. Hey, the time in between is important, too!

Friday, January 6, 2006

If you consider yourself a religious person, boy, have I got good news for you! Recent research indicates that those who consider themselves religious tend to have lower blood pressure than the rest of the population, and they are less likely to be obese, or to have cancer, or to be hospitalized, and they have a 29% greater chance to live longer! And religious people tend to have lower rates of depression, less suicide, greater sexual satisfaction in their marriage, and overall a greater sense of well-being. What do you know, Jesus was right when He said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness" and "Blessed are the pure in heart" ( Matthew 5:6, 8). Yep, lots of good news if you're a religious person, and some very disturbing bad news.

Thursday, January 5, 2006

If you want to get into Manhattan from New Jersey, you have several choices. You can take a long bridge, one of two long tunnels, a ferry trip, or a long un-recommended swim. The Hudson River is really pretty wide when it reaches Manhattan, but it's not very powerful. If you could see the Hudson near its headwaters in upstate New York, you'd see it roaring along with a very strong current. Upstate its banks are confined and the force is greater. But by the time it reaches Manhattan, the Hudson is so spread out that its power seems almost gone. I know people like that.

Wednesday, January 4, 2006

My friend John has a sick little boy on his hands. His son was only about three and he was having some serious respiratory problems. The little guy often woke up in the middle of the night gurgling and finding it hard to breathe. That's scary at any age and even scarier at three. During that siege, John stepped up to serious "daddying." Unbeknownst to little David, he set up a camp just outside the boy's door. Whenever David would cry out, John was there in a moment to help. Night after night, those frightened cries came out of the dark. And night after night, a father was there by the side of his frightened son. Well, little David was no dummy. He finally figured out how his Dad was getting there so quickly. He was right outside the door. So David just got out of bed, went out in the hall, and snuggled up next to his father. That was the end of the fearful cries in the night. He had found the best place to be when you're scared.

Tuesday, January 3, 2006

When my sons were playing high school football, their job was to run their body into other guys' bodies. That's why my wife always made me sign the permission slip for them to play. Now, they were linemen; they blocked. Of course, one of their great rewards for all this body slamming was when they could stop or deflect an opposing lineman - thus opening up a hole through which their teammate could run with the ball. Usually our guys were too busy holding the line to know what was happening down field - like the man who had gone through the hole they made gaining big yardage or even scoring a touchdown. And the good ball carriers knew what they had to do: spot an opening and go through it as fast as they could!

Monday, January 2, 2006

It was before Christmas, and I went shopping for toys for my kids. Now you might not think there's anything unusual about that - unless you happen to know that all my kids are all grown up now. But that doesn't mean they can't have one little spark of childhood left in them. For example, I always buy my daughter a doll for Christmas; always have, always will. And we've got one son who was always a big fan of a certain Sesame Street character, and he still has a collection of everything Ernie. But recently a certain Ernie toy was one of the hottest Christmas items on the market. I wanted one for my son, the Ernie enthusiast, that is. I discovered the toy in September actually in a store - before it became an officially hot item. I held it in my hand - I could have bought it. But I said, "Naw, I can always get it later." Wrong. When "later" came, there were none to be found.

Friday, December 30, 2005

"I don't wanna go." When our boys were little, that was sometimes what they would tell me when we were out in the woods where it was totally dark - and a little scary - for them, of course, not me. But I would reach for their hand and their little hand would instinctively reach up my way when we hit a dark stretch, and they'd grab on tight. Now the strangest thing happened. Once they had their father's hand, their feet started moving again. They could go where they otherwise would never think about going.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Remember that old country song, "country road take me home." I think that's my wife's national anthem. We vacationed recently in the Ozark Mountains where she grew up and man does she have memories. Most of them are down some country road, unpaved, rutted, rocky, dusty, with a standard rear wheel drive vehicle. We sometimes end up in some situations that I'm not sure we'll ever come back from. I've noticed something on those roads. Everyone else we meet is driving a pickup truck with four wheel drive. I feel a little out of place, but anybody who lives where there are steep roads, rocky roads, muddy roads, snowy roads, should have a four wheel drive vehicle because all four wheels are working on getting you over something or out of something so you can go where others can't. You can go virtually on all kinds of terrain in all kinds of weather. And that feels good!

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