Monday, December 6, 2004

There's not much amusing about an automobile accident, but my friend Jean's accident - it had a little smile at the end of it at least. She got hit in the right rear door of her car, and her daughter's head actually broke the glass in the passenger side window. Jean's glasses went flying, and thank the Lord there was no serious injury. The police looked at the car, and they said, "Well, it's OK to drive." They knew that. She knew that, but apparently the computerized monitor in the dashboard didn't know that because all the way home this computer voice kept saying, "Right door is open. Fuel level is low." Actually, the right door was damaged, but no, it wasn't open. And the voice insisted, "Fuel level is low." She had just filled the car with gas! The gauge was on "F" for "Full." Poor Jean! She took a hit and then she started getting all kinds of wrong messages.

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

You hear a truck pull up in front of your house. You look out - it's a UPS truck. Most folks are interested to find out what is coming with this special attention and then they want to know who sent it. What most folks don't do is go to the door and gush all over the delivery person, "Oh! I'm so glad you came. Please come in for some lunch, sit down, tell me all about yourself." I'll bet you've never done that. In fact, it isn't the messenger that's the big deal; it's what's being delivered and who it's from.

Monday, November 29, 2004

Man! Going food shopping just isn't as simple as it used to be. We used to buy whatever looked interesting, or affordable, or yummy. Now we have to allow extra time for a shopping trip. We have to read all those labels. Actually, it's a good thing that they're telling us what's in that cereal or those cookies. We're realizing how much of what we eat has to do with how healthy we are, and maybe how long we live. A lot of damaging ingredients are hidden in some of that food, like fat grams! Before we buy something, we have to know how many fat grams are in it. Who needs that stuff keeping your blood from getting to your heart? Right? Yes, we smart shoppers who want to live a little longer realize the damage that the fat can do that's hiding in that food. So we don't buy that good-looking food because it looks good. Oh, no! First, we check for what's in that product that could do damage to us!

Friday, November 5, 2004

Driving is never more exciting than it is during a major snowstorm. In fact, it is so exciting you ought to avoid it. Sometimes you just can't. I was scheduled to speak at a retreat in the Pocono Mountains one January weekend and a major snowstorm moved in right on the Friday when everyone is supposed to be traveling to Pennsylvania from New Jersey. I waited all day for the call, "Sorry, it's been cancelled." I got the call. They were still going, and by that time it was dark. It was snowing very impressively, so I traveled at a very reduced speed and it looked almost impossible to make it until I spotted my friend up ahead - my friend the snow plow. He was clearing a lane as he went. I just fell in right behind Mr. Snow Plow and followed him through the storm all the way to the state line.

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

You never know what your kid's memories are going to be. Our son was 20 years old, he was in college, and they asked him to write about a childhood memory. That's when they're in college in these family classes and you get to pay for them analyzing you. He picked the day that he and I played wiffle ball together for the first time. He couldn't have been more than four or five years old. You know, that's that little plastic ball, it's got enough holes in it to keep it from going far, and he had this little yellow plastic bat, and I was pitching to him from a few feet away in the backyard. The first time he ever tried to hit a ball, strike one - he chopped it instead of hitting it right and he missed it. It's hard to remember all the things that daddy just told you. Right? Then I threw it again, real gently - strike two. So I stopped and I went over and I reviewed with him, you know, keep your eye on the ball, don't chop, swing evenly, and then I said one more thing that I hadn't said the first two times. I said, "Hey, son, I really believe you can hit it this time!" Next time, bam! He hit it way over daddy's head and into the neighbor's yard.

Monday, November 1, 2004

Anne had ridden her mountain bike through a California wilderness park many times before. But the ride this day would change her life. She was attacked by a mountain lion that hours earlier had killed another biker. As the cat held her in his jaws by the back of her neck, all she could do was pray. Humanly speaking, her friend Debi was her only hope. Debi jumped off her bike, grabbed onto Anne's leg, screaming for help and kicking at the mountain lion. She fought so hard for her friend she actually pulled Anne and the cat into the nearby brush. Thankfully, Debi's screams brought the help of some men who had been biking with them. Debi continued to hang on as the men pelted that lion with rocks. Suddenly the animal released his victim, and Anne's life was saved. Debi gave everything she had to keep the promise she made to her friend in the middle of that struggle: "I'll never let go of you!"

Friday, October 29, 2004

I'm sort of a news junkie. I really like to watch a national news cast sometime before the day is over. But there are some words I cringe at when I hear them in the news, like "hostage." As soon as you hear the word "hostage" you know that there is a potential life-or-death stand off going on between some angry desperate assailant and the police. The law enforcement people are trying to save the hostages that he's holding. Recently I talked with a police officer friend of mine about how they handle those dangerous rescues. He said, "First, you want to use something like tear gas, or fatigue, or a marksman - anything that will immobilize the hostage taker."

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

My plane had just landed in a Midwestern city during a record breaking cold spell, and the pilot welcomed us to the city with a temperature reading that made you want to divert the flight to Florida. At least I had checked the Weather Channel and I was able to anticipate that I was about to enter the ice age, so I had the appropriate coat, scarf, gloves and layers. As I was waiting for my suitcase in the baggage claim area, I heard someone yell, "Grab those pineapples." Excuse me? Sure enough, there were two couples just returning from Hawaii with beautiful live flowers around their necks, and they were wearing short sleeve shirts and carrying their box of fresh pineapples. When I hit the wind outside, I was cold but I was prepared. I can't imagine what happened to the Luau bunch! When they woke up that morning, they probably just said, "Well, I'll just dress for where I am." They were totally unprepared for where they were going!

Monday, October 25, 2004

I've never been in a storm at sea and that's just fine! I've heard the stories, and that's enough. Like the ship some years ago that was making a transatlantic voyage from Liverpool, England, to New York. One night, at a time when most of the passengers were sleeping, the ship was hit by this mega Atlantic storm. The wind and the waves were so violent, that at one point they tipped the ship almost on its side, and down below passengers were thrown out of their bunks! That is what you call a rude awakening!

In one cabin, a little girl was thrown out of her bed, like everyone else, and her mother had already been awakened by the intensity of the storm. There was one thing different, though, about this particular passenger - her Daddy was the captain! Bleary eyed, she asked her Mom the only thing she really wanted to know about the situation, "Is Daddy on deck?" Her Mom said, "Well, yes he is, honey." The little girl's response was right to the point, "Then I'm going back to bed."

Friday, October 22, 2004

My friend Tom has a taste for some of the beautiful things in life like great food for example. In face, he's a wonderful chef. I think I'm still wearing some of his culinary creations on my body. Tom also really appreciates nature, including plants. Actually, I've been fascinated to hear him tell of some of the incredible creations of God that live in that world of plants and flowers that I don't know much about. The last time we saw him, he told us about a flower called the Night Blooming Cyrus, which he said he's only seen bloom once. That's because they don't do much when folks are awake. In fact, they only bloom for two hours a day, and that's from midnight till 2:00 A.M. But for those who stay up late or set their alarm, there's the splendor of a richly colored flower that measures about six inches in bloom. It's beautiful late at night.

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

As I was checking out of my hotel, my host said, "Ron, did you turn in your key?" I was sure he had been talking to my wife. See, she's the one who gets to mail all those keys back. I've been known to own a hotel key collection. You know, everybody needs a hobby - right? Some people collect stamps, some collect coins - you get the idea. It's not really my intention to walk off with hotel keys, but all too often I end up taking what I never meant to take, and I didn't even know I was taking it.

Friday, October 15, 2004

My wife and I have always enjoyed the helicopter of the animal kingdom. Yep, the hummingbird. On our vacation we hung out a hummingbird feeder and we filled it with this sweet red liquid that they love and we sat down on the porch and we sort of swung back and forth, and settled back to watch those cute little guys come to drink. They're not as cute as we thought. No sooner would one land on the feeder and begin to drink, than another hummingbird would swoop down and knock him off. Then another bird would swoop down and knock that bird off. Eventually, we had as many as five hummingbirds at a time hovering and darting around that feeder fighting with each other, dive-bombing each other. When one managed to finally win a spot on the feeder, he couldn't even enjoy what was there; he was so busy looking around for his next attacker. As the provider of all these goodies, I was frustrated. I was irritated. These dumb birds were so busy fighting over it, they couldn't enjoy it.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

It's always a good idea to lock your luggage when you're flying commercially. It's especially a good idea if you're going out of the country. It's an even better idea if you know where the keys for your suitcase locks are before you lock them! I was packing in a rush for my flight to Mexico, and I had my padlocks ready to go. I couldn't find the keys, however. With only minutes left before I had to leave, we launched this all-out desperate search. We checked drawers we thought we'd seen them in - no keys. We looked in creative places - no keys. I was resigned to leaving with unlocked suitcases - when I zipped my garment bag shut and I found the keys. Someone had been wise enough to attach them to the zipper that we use the lock on - right on the suitcase. What a concept! What I had been looking for everywhere had been right in front of me all along.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

We tend to measure life by its milestones. Take our first-born child for example. There have been a lot of milestones in her life. I remember looking at the films of her learning to walk. That's a big milestone a long time ago. Her first piano recital - we have pictures of that. Her first band concert - that was a big one. Let's see, there was her junior high graduation, her high school graduation, her college graduation, on to her wedding. Well, it's been a lot of things. I remember that when she graduated from college there was this sense of completion I think for all of us. She had a double major in college, and she graduated with honors. She got a degree from a great school, and I wrote something on her graduation card for all the work and all the money that degree cost. I told her, "There's another degree that she needs - one that is far more important."

Monday, October 11, 2004

The passengers were there, the plane was there, but our plane wasn't taking off that day. It was time, but we were still sitting in the flight lounge, and there weren't many smiles in that flight lounge. Then we finally found out what we were waiting for. Our pilot wasn't there. His earlier flight was delayed and he hadn't landed yet. So, even though we all had to get somewhere, our pilot was flying something else when we needed him.

Friday, October 8, 2004

When you are in a hurry, there are words you just don't want to see on the highway, like "reduce speed," "construction ahead." Sometimes that slowdown occurs long before you see the sign, and then you wonder why you're in a two-mile traffic jam. Usually, everything has to slow to a crawl around a construction area.

Once when I was on a major road in a metropolitan area, we had to slow down for this big construction area. They were obviously doing major work, so that meant the expressway was going to be slowed down for a while. My cab driver had a good attitude toward it all. He said, "Well, it's an inconvenience, but it will be so much better when they're done."

Wednesday, October 6, 2004

You can get into a pretty good debate among American sports fans over which of their sports is more exciting. You have the brains and brawn of football, or someone will say that soccer's their game, or hockey is a really bruising sport. I think my two sons would vote for basketball as the most exciting sport, and basketball action is really pretty physical. I mean, it's constantly changing, it's intense, it's unpredictable. There's this one point where it slows down a little, though, much to the relief of the players. You know if a player is fouled by someone from the other team he gets to shoot one or two free throws. Now, that's one time when nobody's bothering you. Well, there are not all these guys trying to stop you from getting your shot, and you get to shoot for an extra point or two, but there is someone trying to bother you - especially if you're the visiting team. When you're facing the basket, you are also facing all these local fans who want you to miss. So, they jump up and down, they make noise, they wave their arms, they wave signs, and they have this one sign that says "Brick, brick, brick." So, if you're trying to score some points, you really need to concentrate.

Tuesday, October 5, 2004

I was on a mission in England and Ireland, and I actually had a day to spend in the historic English city of York. What a place! It's surrounded by a medieval wall actually and it's dominated by a cathedral that might be second only to Westminster Abbey in London. There was an unusual scene out in front, because there was an artist on his knees, painstakingly working on a chalk drawing on the sidewalk in front of the cathedral. When I was closer and I looked at it, it was the Mona Lisa. It was immediately recognizable. He must have been working on it all day, and it was beautifully done. As I went inside a restaurant, I saw that the artist had left. Within minutes, a little boy came up, and he intentionally ran over the artwork, stomped back and forth and made footprints all over it. Other kids followed him. They did the same thing. They had just trampled all over the work of an artist who had worked very hard on it. It hurts to see someone doing that.

Monday, October 4, 2004

A boy from the south side of Chicago meets a girl from the Ozarks of Arkansas and they live happily ever after. That's my life story. As my honey and I approached our wedding day, a week after our college graduation, we had a lot of love. We didn't have much money to match, so we prayed for our own little wedding miracle. We were also heading into full-time Christian ministry, and there was not going to be much income from that. So, we prayed that God would lead people in buying gifts for our wedding, so we'd have what we needed to set up housekeeping. We didn't need a lot. We couldn't even afford the basics, though. We prayed that there wouldn't be much duplication in the gifts. Well, you know what? There was hardly any. It was amazing! We received one of each of the things we needed, except we got four whistling teakettles. Don't ask me to explain that. Maybe you could do a Gospel quartet with them.

As we opened the gifts, it was clear that God had answered our prayer, and it looked as if He had shopped for our wedding gifts Himself. We got all the basics. We didn't know how we would meet our start-up needs, but one wedding guest made all the difference.

Friday, October 1, 2004

The best time to go to Long Beach Island is off-season. It's this beautiful stretch of land off the New Jersey coast. It's about 12 miles long and not very wide. You can see the ocean and the bay, actually, on either side of you. It's got this one long main street, and when you're there off-season you see this long string of traffic lights as far as the eye can see. Oh, but listen, during the season - like the summer - it is slow going on that street. I mean it's bumper to bumper people, cars, and red lights. I hope you're not in a hurry to get to the beach or get back to your house, cause it is going to take a while in the summer. Off-season, though, you can drive and you can hit this string of green lights and never stop.