August 7, 2019

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Maybe it's because of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. Yeah, as a boy I watched that ancient show on TV. I was fascinated watching my Mountie hero racing across the snow with his dog team. I even wore pants that were marked "husky."

And then there was my ministry trip to Alaska one February where I got to see dog team races in the snowy streets of Anchorage. They call it the "Fur Rondy." Now, those memories reignited recently because our son retraced that trip to lay the groundwork for a historic conference for Native Alaskan young people.

July 24, 2019

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He was a phenomenon on the American scene for well over 50 years - Dr. Billy Graham. Again and again, decade after decade, more than any other individual, he appeared on the list of America's most respected men. In the twilight of his long ministry, his crusades took on a great sense of poignant significance. His crusade in Los Angeles was near the end of 2004, and it attracted tens of thousands to the Rose Bowl, and many thousands to begin a personal relationship with the Savior that Billy Graham had proclaimed all these years. His message each night was translated instantaneously into 26 languages, including sign language. I happened to know the man in charge of translation - that's why I was closer to it than usual. Interpreters fed the translation to groups of people sitting in their language groups, hearing the translation via headsets tuned to appropriate low-wave frequencies on their little radios. It was pretty amazing! So Billy Graham's Crusades were translated since 1980, but they said never into so many languages as it was in Los Angeles those years ago. The translating coordinator explained that it was important that each person hear the message in "his own heart language."

July 10, 2019

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Some say it's legend. Some say it's history, but it's one of the most inspiring stories from America's past. The scene: a tiny mission near San Antonio, Texas. You know, a small band of Texas Freedom Fighters is taking their stand against the invading Mexican Army, and they're vastly outnumbered. There's a brief window during which the men of the Alamo have a choice between leaving or staying to fight. Col. William Travis is in command of the garrison, and according to some accounts, he gathered the defenders in the courtyard of the Alamo. With his sword, he drew a line in the sand and he called his men to a destiny choice: cross the line as your pledge to fight or stay where you are as an announcement that you are leaving. They all crossed the line to heroism, to immortality, and to honor that has endured some 200 years.

July 3, 2019

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It's amazing how you can go outside on a brutally cold winter day, and you go from shivering to sweating in a few minutes. If you just stand around in the cold or just move around a little bit, you're not going to stay outside for long. It's just too frigid out there, right! But in a very short time you can get to where you barely even notice the cold. Just start shoveling snow or some other vigorous activity. You know, my wife once was out in the middle of a snowstorm, working on some outside chores, and she told me, "It's amazing how you can work up a sweat on a day like this!"

June 26, 2019

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Have you driven past a home or building that's under construction lately? Take a good look, because there are some things you will never see again, so you'd better look now. Like the foundation for example. You can see it right now while they're building, but pretty soon all you'll see is the house, or the office building, or the condo. The foundation will pretty soon disappear from view. But it's always going to be what's holding up that whole structure. The same is true of the support beams. Pretty soon they're going to be covered with walls, and paint, and wallpaper. But they will always form the invisible support for everything. If the foundation or the support beams go, the whole thing goes.

June 21, 2019

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It was a wonderful/awful day in my life - the day my mother took my hand and walked me the two blocks over to Park Manor School in Chicago. It was the day I went to school for the first time. Kindergarten, here I come! It was exciting, but it was hard, too. We didn't do any pre-school stuff back then - my family didn't even go to Sunday School. So here was little Ronnie leaving the safety of his apartment, leaving his mother, leaving everything that was safe and familiar for a place I had never been. It sounds a little silly, knowing what I know now. Still, the fears and the feelings were very real then. But if I hadn't left home and stepped into the unknown called school, I would have missed so much!

June 12, 2019

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My friend Dave got tired of wearing glasses. But if he didn't, he was dangerous. After consulting with a specialist, he determined that he was a candidate for this Lasik eye surgery. During the procedure, a laser beam was aimed at the parts of his eye that limited his vision and the light of that laser changed everything. Guess who doesn't need glasses anymore? All because of the power of focused light.

June 5, 2019

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I think my fascination started at a historic old life-saving station on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was there that I learned about the heroism of those crews who once manned those life-saving stations all along the maritime Atlantic coast. Their heroism actually gave birth to what we know today as the United States Coast Guard. Their motto says it all: "So others may live." Some of that modern-day heroism was portrayed in a movie called "The Guardian." It's a story about that elite group of 280 men and women who are known as rescue swimmers - the first responders who jump from choppers into violent seas to rescue people who otherwise would die there. In the movie, a veteran rescuer shows a film of a burning ship from which he helped to rescue some desperate crewmen. He frames the essence of their mission in some sobering words: "They're looking for a miracle to save them. You have to find a way to be that miracle."

May 22, 2019

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It's happened too often. I've seen it a lot but I guess I remember this one in particular. Flags flying at half-staff, national leaders pausing for a moment of silence at the White House, on the Capitol steps, and even seasoned news reporters that day struggled with the pain and anguish of these devastating moments when a mall parking lot suddenly became a killing field.

The heart rending toll of a lone gunman's rampage. It was in Tucson, Arizona. Six people dead, 14 others wounded. And then in that Tucson hospital, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, apparently the intended target, battled for her life with a critical head wound.

As horrific as the losses were, thank God she recovered to some extent, we now know that there could have been many more. When the shots began, as often happens, the everyday heroes stepped up.

May 15, 2019

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We love it when we hear those stories in the news about ordinary people who come upon someone in danger and they risk their own lives to save them. And then there's the kind of story that came from Mount Everest some years ago. A British mountaineer became desperate for oxygen on his descent from that mountain. And you know, it is a legendary mountain. Ultimately, he collapsed along a well-traveled route to the summit. He was dying. And more than 40 climbers are thought to have seen him as he lay dying, and they passed him by. He died there of oxygen deficiency. But you know what? He sure didn't have to die.