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Friday, September 22, 2006

There have been a number of airplane crashes over the years. A few of them are the kind you just don't forget. One was the crash of United Flight 232. Captain Al Haynes and his crew were desperately trying to control a plane that was almost out of control due to an equipment failure. They were diverted from Chicago to Sioux City, Iowa. There was no way they were able to maneuver that plane to the airport. Their best hope of saving at least some lives was to try to bring it down in a nearby cornfield. Captain Haynes became a national hero when he somehow managed to do just that. Tragically, some lives were lost in the crash landing and the subsequent fire, but there were many survivors from a crash that could have easily killed all aboard. Captain Haynes said he had a hero that day. His crew had checked every procedure book to see what to do in an emergency like they were facing. They found no procedure. So Captain Haynes' hero was the flight controller that talked him through that terrifying crisis. Here's what the captain said: "There's nothing like a calm, soothing voice talking to you, telling you everything you need to know."

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Okay, here is one of my un-favorite sentences, "I guess we have to go to the emergency room!" I'm glad the emergency room is there, but I hate to go there. I remember one time our son had a mild stomach disorder and we knew it had to be checked out. Actually, we went late at night when it really gets busy. I guess it was rush hour for sure that day we were there. We had already waited for a while and finally they noticed us. They began to give some attention to our son, and then suddenly all the doctors and nurses vanished. I'll tell you why. There was a word that had been sounded across that emergency room - "STAT" - and everybody came running to an accident victim. It was a severe situation. It was life or death. "Stat" means it's time to drop everything.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

It was a great honor to be one of the 10,000 participants at Billy Graham's Amsterdam 2000 conference for evangelists. It's pretty unforgettable to look out over an audience with Christ's ambassadors from 209 countries! The most international gathering in the history of this planet - and it was in Jesus' Name! One Great Commission challenge I just could not get out of my mind that week: almost half the world is under 25 - three billion young people! That's why I was literally moved to tears by the way this historic conference ended.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Once upon a time there was a machinist who lived with his wife, his four-year-old son, and his new baby boy in a cheap apartment on the south side of Chicago. He spent a chunk of his meager earnings on alcohol and cigarettes and gambling, and then the bottom dropped out of his life. His baby boy died suddenly at the age of only six months. He was crushed by inconsolable grief, and this machinist (John was his name) took his one surviving boy to church. Now, John didn't go in. He didn't go to church. But he did wait out in front in his car, smoking his cigarette and reading his Sunday paper. Until the day one of the men of the church looked outside and noticed that man in the car. He didn't wait for John to come in. He went outside to John's car, introduced himself, asked a few questions, and then invited him in. Well, when John said he wasn't dressed for it, the man told him it didn't matter how he was dressed. That little boy gave his heart to Jesus in that church. And only a few months later, his Dad started coming to the men's Bible class. John tearfully walked the aisle on Christmas Eve; accepting Christ's forgiveness for his sins. He would grow in Christ and ultimately he'd become a deacon, and then the chairman of the deacons, and then an active Christian lay leader. The little boy was me. The machinist in the car in front of the church was my dad.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

I was with some missionaries in Guadalajara, Mexico. David was there leading a team that was reaching young Latin Americans through a historic youth radio broadcast. Now David is a big guy and I had my picture taken with him; he was wearing a tie - I was wearing a sport shirt. It looked like "bring your son to work day." Guess who looks like the son? Because of the crime rate in David's area, he and his family needed a guard dog, and they had one - a big one that's a match even for his master, David. The dog is appropriately named General and he's pretty much in charge at the house. When David came home from a night of ministry, General was right there at the gate, waiting to play. Playing with this aggressive German Shepherd could cost you a finger or two if you're not careful. But, somehow, David had done a good job of mastering the dog. In fact, I heard him tell General, "Get your bowl, and I'll feed you!" General just wanted his master to give him food, but David wanted him to go for it. So, this German Shepherd bolted up the walk to his big, empty plastic bowl, grabbed it in his iron jaws, and trotted up to his master with it. Sure enough, if he got his bowl, his master would fill it.

Monday, September 11, 2006

It seemed harmless enough when I entered. I was just a kid at an amusement park in Chicago, and the ride was just a big cylinder that made you feel like you were walking into a washing machine. They called it The Rotor. I stood against the edge and I waited for it to do its thing. Then it started to do what something called The Rotor might be expected to do - rotate. As it began to spin faster and faster, the floor started to disappear in front of my feet. I was plastered against the side of the cylinder, looking down into this yawning black hole. I hated it. I wanted off. Too bad!

Friday, September 8, 2006

When my wife and I are driving somewhere, we don't lose any time when she drives. In fact, we've set some records, so it's all right if she drives. Once when we were on a trip and I was preparing for the meetings we were going to, she was driving down this four-lane, divided highway, and I was looking down. All of a sudden, I looked up and I saw orange plastic cones on the middle line that divides the two lanes on our side. Now, I wasn't clear which lane we were supposed to be driving in, because I hadn't been looking up. And as I looked, every vehicle but one was moving into the left lane, to the left of the cones. I said everyone but one - that was us. My wife continued in the right lane, and I said, "Honey, what are you doing? It looks like this lane is closing." She said, "Just watch." Well, we passed a line of cars on our left, with a big truck at the head of it. See, that truck had moved into the left lane, and all the other cars said, "Oh, that must be the lane to be in." and all the other cars followed it. The problem was that the truck that they were following was taking equipment to a big tar truck parked in the left lane, so we waved as we zipped by all those cars as they were headed for an unpleasant surprise.

Thursday, September 7, 2006

The power was out this morning when some of our neighbors woke up. In fact, several hundred customers were without electricity. Now, it wasn't the power company's fault. It was the fault of a driver who ran his car into an electric pole. Oh, not on purpose, of course. See it was a grandfather returning from an all-night hunting expedition with his grandson. Unfortunately, his body didn't want to wait until it got home to sleep. So the driver fell asleep at the wheel. Now, he was injured, his car was damaged, and lots of folks had no power.

Tuesday, September 5, 2006

It was Father's Day, and my friend Dave and I were making the most of it. Our families were spending the day together and Dave and I knew what our job was on Father's Day - loafing and making sure everyone understood our needs. And sometimes someone even paid attention to us for a second. Well, all of us were sitting at the picnic table in the yard and I was explaining what the day's activities were going to be and why Dave and I were the ones making the plans. I said, "It's Father's Day." To which his son mumbled this interesting comment, "At our house, every day is Father's Day." And that got me thinking.

Monday, September 4, 2006

I've stood at many a wedding altar as the minister before lots of brides and grooms, but this one was different. The beautiful bride, glowing in her elegant white dress, was our only daughter. Man, what a thrill it was to perform her wedding, and to watch her commit herself unconditionally to a wonderful young man. She is a great son picker. And, of course, I watched him commit himself to her. I had the privilege of watching that relationship grow over three and a half years to the point from her first discovery of him on a missions trip, and then her deepening love for him. Then all of the experiences they had together that build trust, the joy of their engagement, and the months of preparation for the wedding day. There were a lot of important stages that led up to that glorious moment, but something decisive happened that day at the altar. Everything else was important, but it was just preparation. And it all came down to a magic moment on a life-changing day for my daughter. Maybe there's a moment like that for you.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

We had been working on our production for our college's Junior-Senior Banquet for months. It was an original musical drama, written and directed by my roommate and me, based on the book of Esther. The orchestra had rehearsed night after night, the chorus had rehearsed, the actors, the light crew, the sound crew; we had prepared as much as we could. The night before, we had the dress rehearsal. But all those months of preparation and practice came down to one evening - the night of the big performance, and it was show time!

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Jenny's only two years old but she's already teaching her parents. She often starts with one or both by announcing, "Let's pray." Now, she doesn't always pick her times well. Dad might be studying or Mom might be involved in her housework or running to get ready. That doesn't stop Jenny. She'll just say, "Let's pray." She grabs her hands, closes her eyes and she expects you to do the same. She's fully expecting Mom or Dad to drop whatever they're doing. Mom told me, "I don't dare tell Jenny, 'Later honey, I'm too busy now.'" Jenny is only two, but she's got the right idea.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Every child's dream - Disney World! Our three-year-old granddaughter had counted down to her visit there for weeks. And she was absolutely giddy as she finally entered the Magic Kingdom. One ride she really wanted to try was the flying elephants. Actually, the flying Dumbos, named after that elephant with oversize ears that enabled him to be a flying elephant! Dumbo basically just goes around and around; he's a ride for the little kids - kids like me. Now when you pull the bar in your Dumbo car, it starts to go up. Not super-high, but high enough to get a nice view of a lot of things in the park. And our granddaughter began making those Dumbo circles with her uncle, he started to pull the bar to help the flying elephant fly. It was not to be. Our little princess would have none of this going higher business - too scary! And she made no secret of her desire (well, maybe "demand" is more accurate) that Dumbo was to fly at the lowest possible level - and stay there.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Our son-in-law was visiting his grandfather in Florida, with a nice Florida view outside his bedroom window - grapefruit trees. Now, it wasn't all a happy view. 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.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Someone said to me, "Don't forget to tell your wife." I said, "Wait a minute, I've got to write it down. I'm Mr. No 'K.'" They looked at me kind of funny, but see, I know the computer terminology. You know, "K" is the memory capacity of the computer and I think I've reached mine. So, I'm Mr. No "K." Hey, look, I'm too young to be losing my memory. Right? I think I just used it up, that's all. So I have to write things down; things we need at the store, appointments, or lists of errands. I've got to write down an idea before I forget it. I always carry this 4x6 card with me everywhere. I mean, even by my bed, in the bathroom, you know - I've got to write it down. I've got to write down phone numbers. I've got to write down directions. A lot of us write down the things we don't want to forget, except for some real important things.

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!

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