For years, Haiti's had a special place in the hearts of my wife and myself. We've been there sometimes. My wife went down there on a photography mission. It's always touched our hearts. And when it's in the news, like earthquakes etc. it really gets to us. You know, I remember some years ago when my wife brought back a strange souvenir from her visit. She came home with I guess you'd call it a bacterial souvenir from a mission trip there.
I guess it might be nice to own a copy of the Declaration of Independence. It's not on my top ten list of things I'd like to have, but if it's cheap, why not? That's what Michael Sparks thought when he bought a copy of the Declaration in a thrift store. Yeah, he spent a whopping $2.48. What a deal! It turns out what he bought for $2.48 is one of the 200 "official copies" commissioned by John Quincy Adams in 1820. So, the man who bought it for $2.48, sold it for almost half a million dollars!
Now, look, if we get together regularly by radio, we kind of have sort of a strange relationship. I mean you know me by radio, but maybe only by radio. Some people might think that gives you a break because they'd say, "Yeah, that's probably better we just know him by radio." You just know my voice, right; sort of a one-dimensional relationship. It's pretty amusing when people find out how I look. Yeah, they get this mental image of what they think I look like. One lady said "You don't look like yourself." What? I've never looked like anybody else. I'll be somewhere I'm speaking, they'll say, "Oh, we thought you looked different. This is it?" Yeah, this is it.
Oh I've come a long way for a technically challenged person. Well, there was a time I'd never used a computer - wasn't planning to. Somebody bought me one, said, "You're gonna." I didn't understand all about it, but I did learn how to use it. I remember back before the days of autosave, you know? There were some lessons I learned the hard way: I'd type in part of a book or a magazine article or notes of some kind, and then type in a password to save it. But I'd make one fatal mistake. See, you were supposed to hit this little key that said Enter or you wouldn't be seeing that material again. Just because it appeared on the screen didn't mean I had it. You had to save it by pressing the Enter command.
Some years ago, I took my second trip on behalf of a youth ministry to South Africa. On the first trip, I remember how very lost I felt when I got to the airport. I'd been on an airplane for 18 wonderful hours. I got there late at night, I had no car, no directions. I didn't know anything about anywhere in the nation of South Africa.
If you want to ask me the five greatest victories in my life, I'm not sure I can tell you what two, three, four or five would be. But I could sure tell you what number one would be - my wife! She was not an easy conquest, man. She was dating this other guy. I was after her long before she had any romantic thoughts about me. So I really had to work on this one. So I plotted ways to be with her, I plotted ways to impress her. I plotted ways to try to help her. Is this stalking? I'm not sure. But this is all under the heading "Oh, we have a brother and sister relationship." That's what it was.
Because I lived in the New York area for so many years, went to the World Trade Center so many times, even knew people in the building, the events of September 11th always come back to me. And part of the incredible impact of the attacks on the World Trade Center was that everyday people suddenly became national heroes. Fire trucks would roll through New York City with weary firefighters on board. Can't you picture it? Maybe you saw that stuff on the news. And New Yorkers would erupt in spontaneous cheers - scenes that I would never forget. Ground Zero, that devastated area at and around the site of the collapsed towers, became known as Ground Hero. Professional athletes, who are supposedly our nation's heroes in less turbulent times, kept saying, "We're not the heroes - they're the heroes." Americans will not soon forget those firefighters, the police, the medical personnel, and those countless volunteers who gave everything they had to try to rescue those who were caught in those collapsing towers. I'll tell you what. For me, the word "hero" was never the same again.
For many years now I've spent most of my summer working with Native American young people. So I was especially interested when I heard the touching story of an Indian chief who was chief during the time when tribes were still wandering tribes. He had a reputation for being a really great leader. In fact it was said that he was always just, but he was always loving. That was about to be severely tested, though, in a way he could have never dreamed.
When you've been sick in bed for six weeks, you are pretty desperate for things to do. That's probably why my wife spent so long just watching a frustrated lady bug one day during an illness. My wife had been sick long enough to be almost at that point of desperation.
It seems to happen so many nights on the news, the anchorman or anchorwoman telling us there's been another school shooting. I remember the time it wasn't even a shooting. It was knives. A student rampaged through the halls of Franklin Regional High School. Two long knives left a trail of blood and 22 wounded victims - Murrysville, Pennsylvania. Yeah, another one they added to the list of schools nobody wants to be on. We know the names: Parkland, Newtown, and Fort Hood. And on and on it goes. Of course, starting with Columbine. Places where one angry person changes lives and families forever.
I was blessed one time by an observation made by a three-year-old granddaughter. A friend asked her, "What's your granddad up to these days?" To which she simply replied: "Oh, he's getting taller." I am? I'd like to think she's right. I think I'll go measure.
It was one of those many nights with our team of young Native Americans when God had dramatically shown His power. We were in the middle of a major outreach on a reservation basketball court and these huge storms started to surround us. There were predictions of severe thunderstorms, and it appeared they were bearing right down on us. Two hours later, when we had had the time to help many Native young people there begin a relationship with Jesus, the storms roared through. By then we were having our team debriefing in a church fellowship hall. Suddenly, in the middle of our sharing time, all the lights went out. We were in total darkness. And in a matter of moments, someone had found some candles, and as soon as we lit a candle, things changed in the room. We could see each other again, even if it was a little dim. It was just one light, but it wasn't totally dark anymore.
When you use our kitchen sink, you notice this little contraption attached to the faucet. It's one of those sophisticated water filters. Before the water arrives in your glass or container, it passes through that filter. Now, I don't know about you, but I hate surprises in my water. How about you? I mean, I was amazed the first time that we took that filter off to clean it. Oh, it needed lots of cleaning! It had screened out of our drinking water this layer of dirty stuff. I didn't even want to think about that going into my body. Let's hear it for the filter!
Every once in a while Hollywood will get your hopes up, and then... you know. Yeah, like a few years ago they were going to make a movie about Noah and Noah's Ark. Yeah, Noah's Ark Rides Again! They were hoping it would bring in a flood of money. Well, the word was that the telling of this iconic story started with the Bible account, and then it added a very heavy dose of Hollywood imagination with great special effects. Probably no match, though, for the original. Now, with Noah showing up in TV ads, it kind of made me go back to the non-fiction, original narrative - I mean Bible-style.
You know, some people who financially support Christian ministry also like to play golf. I don't happen to be one of them. If you'd seen the one time I did play golf, when I hit my partner in the head with a club, you would understand why I've been banned from golf courses.
So, as you get close to the time of the wedding, you know, you've got to make the list of who you're going to invite and who you're not going to invite. So, almost every bride and groom with a lot of counsel from the parents, end up with two lists. Here's the people that make the cut and they're going to get invited, and these people...what they don't know won't hurt them probably. Then, oh, there of course were my friends at school. We had a missionary aviation course. It was very challenging. And for two years, the guys had to take all the base curriculum not knowing if they would make the cut to be able to go into the airport and then begin to really get the flight training. And many of my friends were standing there on the day they posted the list. Boy, I'll tell you what, that was a big day to find out which list you were on. I had a lot of friends that were crushed, and a lot of friends who were celebrating the rest of the day. It's amazing how many times life comes down to which list you're on.
It was a spiritual, well, "golden moment." The closing night of our Warrior Leadership Summit. And it was our privilege, as it is every summer, to bring together Native American young people, representing scores of Indian nations across North America. I mean, we realize that only an estimated 4% of Native people know Christ after some 400 years of mission work, this conference is almost historic. The mission each year is to help Native young people choose Christ, follow Christ and be a warrior for Christ in some very difficult places. That moment, that golden moment, came when 20 young people, representing some 20 Indian nations, each stood to declare their commitment to go back to reach their people for Christ. Then they bowed at the foot of the old rugged cross at the front of the auditorium.
It's a pretty good guess that a woman wrote this famous line "The only difference between men and boys is the size of their toys." Actually, I think there is a little boy that does live inside of most men. By the way, I think there's a little girl who lives inside of most women.
When we moved to New York City many years ago, one of the first landmarks I wanted to see was the Statue of Liberty. And when we went out there on our first weekend, the guide told us an amazing fact I never realized. He said, "From the day in the late 1800's when her light was first lit up right here on that island, to the moment we are looking at right now, the lamp of Liberty has never gone out." Wow!
Okay, babies don't always know what's good for them. That may be why some parents invented the airplane idea. A baby should eat the food that he has in his bowl, but he doesn't want to. So, you put the food on the spoon, and you make it like an airplane. "See the airplane (airplane sound)! Now open your mouth!" It’s always hard when the mouth opened, the plane approached, and suddenly the mouth closed, leaving the airplane's cargo all over the baby's face. "Hey baby! I have what you need. But you won't open your mouth."
