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Tyler's story really touched me and showed me what makes someone a hero. In this case - an eight-year-old hero. Since he didn't have school on Martin Luther King Day, Tyler went to stay at his grandpa's trailer for the night. He wasn't the only one. Nine people slept that night in that little trailer.
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It was my first overseas trip, and I mean trip. Ten thousand miles to Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and there we were at Kennedy Airport. Me, my wife, our three young children facing three weeks of Daddy being gone. We'd never had that before. That's a long time when you're a little kid. Actually, it's a long time when you're the Daddy of some little kids. Well, I headed down the jet way, and I smiled and waved goodbye. Rounded the bend to the plane and then I wasn't smiling.
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I was on one of those early-morning airplane flights that's packed with business people. And as we landed that morning, we had one of those "two for the price of one" landings. We bumped and jumped along the runway as we landed. A lot of fun! And suddenly that commanded the attention of all us passengers who are usually numb from frequent travel. I thought, "I wonder what the flight attendant's going to say? I mean, this wasn't in any way a routine landing." Well, the attendant simply got on the sound system and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, now that I have your attention, I'd like to make a few announcements..." Man, did they have our attention!
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It was several years ago now, but that last earthquake in Haiti; I think the images of that quake will be with us for a long time. For a while there they were looking for any hope they could get, because it was just all about so much death and disaster. You remember that when it seemed that no one else could still be alive in all those collapsed buildings, a boy thought he heard a voice from the rubble of a bank building. The husband of a woman who worked there had been frantically trying to find his wife. When the boy told that man about what he had heard, that husband went for a nearby rescue team from California.
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When my friend Larry isn't running his business, he can often be found riding his bicycle. We're talking serious biking here, not just the little leisurely around-the-block stuff. He and his friends have covered a lot of America on their bicycles, conquering all kinds of challenges. Like big hills, you know. Now, any of us who has ever ridden a bike, we know it's the hills that bite your leg muscles. As you're riding, you see this mountain looming in front of you. OK, it's a hill, but your mind is thinking "mountain." At least mine is. My friend told me a fundamental "big hill" principle that he's discovered and that he passes on to other bikers. He said, "The longer you look, the bigger it gets!" That's true.
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Well I love that my grandchildren love to hear my stories and sometimes my ideas. There's something about being a grandfather or grandmother. Because you've got a little distance. You're not the one making all the rules all the time and enforcing them at home. And I even see sometimes and I know of some young people who are choosing roads that are kind of scary. I know they are probably going to lead to a sad outcome. And I think to myself...as a grandfather, what would I tell them if I had the chance? What would I write them as I would say to one of my own grandchildren. And that brought me to a place where I kind of wrote down what I would call "Three Big Ideas From a Grandfather's Heart."
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It's got to be one of the most dreaded words in the English language - "Cancer." I mean, it's the word we all hope we will never hear from a doctor. It's a word too many friends of mine have heard over the years. Thankfully, there are more forms of treatment and successful cancer surgeries than there have ever been before. But once the surgeon has operated to remove the cancer, there's that question that everyone wants the answer to, "Did they get it all?"
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When I was in the jungles of Ecuador, I was more than happy to have a guide who knew his way. Even though the jungle was pretty jungle-y, at least we had a little path to follow. That wasn't the case for a pioneer missionary I heard about. He had a long journey through some very thick jungle ahead of him. When he came to the village on the edge of that jungle, he was happy to find a man who was willing to guide him for the rest of the trip.
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Not long after we moved to this area, we had a chance to explore a beautiful cave that really has some breathtaking views. Most of the caves you tour in America were discovered some time in the 1800s. Not this one. It was just discovered in 1969. Actually it was discovered because of a giant sinkhole that opened up. Some adventurous young men decided to crawl down into that sinkhole and see where it led. The cave guide showed us the little hole in the rocks that they crawled through and then out into this huge room, decorated with spectacular rock formations. I don't suppose the big lights and sidewalks and the railings were there when they first looked in, but they must have been amazed at what they saw, and what millions have been able to discover because they did. And it was all because of a sinkhole.
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Now, if you like putting puzzles together, oh you'd love trying to piece together your family genealogy. My wife and I spent quite a bit of time and energy on that. As you start climbing your family tree, you find all kinds of holes in your information, dates and places that sometimes seem contradictory, illogical.
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Okay so I'm a newspaper guy, sort of a news junkie. Yeah I get it on TV, I read it on the internet but I like to read my newspapers too. It's kind of one of life's simple pleasures. But I've found out that a newspaper isn't finished though when you finish reading it. Oh, no, no! It's more than informative, it's useful! What's in the news is useful for wrapping fragile items, or storing them or shipping them. We did that just the other day. It's useful for killing flies sometimes when I can't find the swatter. A newspaper is useful for lining pet cages and building a fire. What's in the news or in the newspaper is useful for saving lives.
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For some reason, this drunk driver decided that he liked my side of the road better than his. He suddenly crossed the center line and plowed headlong into our car. I had the whole family with me, and our car was totaled those years ago. But thankfully, none of us was totaled. Our injuries were miraculously minor actually, in light of what happened to our car. Now, a friend offered to drive me to the youth retreat where I was speaking that weekend. Well, that night of the accident, the doctor put me in a neck brace for a few days, so I got a lot of sympathy at that retreat! I almost decided to wear it permanently! But I did have a little whiplash, actually, from the force of the hit that we took. That's the damage to your neck when you get whipped around violently and suddenly.
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There are two words that send a shudder through almost everyone who is either in school or was ever in school, because you remember the fear that goes with these words. And if you're currently a student, you don't have to remember them at all; you're living with them. The words - final exam!
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We were driving across the state of Kansas, and I was reminded again of what a panoramic view you have there no matter which way you look. Those plains just seem to stretch as far as the eye can see, and your eye can see just about everything - not many hills or mountains to hide in. If you know that terrain, you can understand how quickly an unobstructed wind can carry a fire across that prairie, destroying everything in its path. A Kansas farmer told us that at the first sight of smoke, every farmer and rancher who can see it leaps into action; some in pickup trucks that are loaded with tanks of water, others with tractors and farm equipment. They're all determined to stop that fire before it really gets started.
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You might say parenting is not a precise science. You don't just mix certain ingredients and get a certain reaction. In fact, it's largely (I hate to say it) experimental. But after a while you learn more creative ways to do what is right. You can yell, you can overpower, you can threaten them until they're bigger than you are. Or you can work through the method I came to call 'The Squeeze'. It's a method that steers a child to the right choice. It's also known as "The Lousy Choice" approach.
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I used to work with someone on our team who was a fanatical fisherman! He actually told me about a boy who was starting very young down that same road, or stream as the case may be. At that point, James was only three years old, but his dad had already taught him to fish! The first time they went fishing together Dad gave him a cricket to use as bait. Well, beginner's luck - James caught himself a little sunfish with that cricket. And then, just for fun, Dad decided to let his boy try some serious bait - what fishermen call stink bait. It's got something like pieces of liver in it. Wouldn't you know it! Little James reeled in a seven pound catfish! When Dad tried to get him to go back to the cricket bait - no way, Dad! He had discovered what kind of bait attracts the big ones!
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In our town, Dr. Jennings was one of the most feared teachers in the school system. She taught music, and she began a new year in elementary school one year with a tirade that dumped all over one poor little boy who happened to raise his hand and say, "Mrs. Jennings..." At which she totally exploded and said, "Dr. Jennings, and don't you forget it!" And I want to tell you, that was only the beginning of what she said. You'd better call her Doctor. You get the distinct impression she really needs that title for her identity. But then, have you ever watched high school football players? I've worked with them a lot, and it's kind of fun to watch them, because in a sense, they're seldom seen in public without their letter jacket. You've got to have your jacket to kind of have your identity. Right? Who am I without my letter jacket?
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It was one of those rare mornings off for our Native American outreach team and someone had arranged for us to take a brief raft trip down the beautiful Snake River in Wyoming. Our guide pointed out these incredible sights along the way including a stand of tall Aspen trees along the bank. He told us that Aspens actually have a single root system. In other words, that stand of trees all came from the same root, just branching out a lot of different directions. That's amazing! And then our guide who I hope wasn't just putting on some dumb tourists said that the largest living thing in the world is in Colorado, a giant stand of Aspen trees. All the product of a single root. Many, many trees, one root. . .
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I think my brief visit to Israel has to be one of the richest memories of my life. I'm not selling Holy Land tours; I'm not going to have a Ron Hutchcraft Holy Land Tour that I'm promoting. I'm just remembering with you in my company, some especially golden moments. One of those was in this dark, damp, cobblestone basement of what is now a church on the Via Dolorosa. Two thousand years ago it wasn't that church; it was part of the palace of Pontius Pilate, the Governor. And I realized that I was standing on stones where Jesus was humiliated in front of a howling mob by some hardened Roman soldiers. And I can't forget the feelings of that. The guide showed us some markings that were scratched into the stones there; probably by some Roman soldiers. He said, "This was a board for a crude game. They called it The Game of The King, and the soldiers loved to play it. In fact, they may have played it with Jesus on those very stones. And you know what, that game is still being played today.
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That statue in that church yard had been a beautiful statue. It was Jesus with his arms extended, arms wide open. Great statue! Then the vandals came along and broke off the hands. Strangely, the church decided not to repair the hands. They left it broken like that - the arms extended, but no hands. They put a sign that explained why. It simply said: "He has no hands but our hands."
