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Our local high school football team had the most dramatic turn around I think I've ever seen in a high school team. They had only scored in two games the season before. A new coach took over, and the next season they were in the state championship and were on top many years after that!
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It was right at the beginning of the first Gulf War when I got an unusual and an unexpected insight from one of the soldiers who had been shipped out for that very dangerous mission. Thousands and thousands of our military were sent out to the desert to try to liberate the nation of Iraq. And they were hit with such intense desert heat that it could require six gallons of water a day to keep from dehydrating. And they faced the very real fear of chemical warfare. They had to be prepared to resist that. Not just guns and tanks, but deadly gas.
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If you're not an avid basketball fan, you may have never heard of Stacey King. He actually some years ago was a rookie player with the Chicago Bulls. I think you've probably heard of Michael Jordan, one of the all-time great superstars of professional basketball. One season, Michael Jordan broke a single game scoring record, and Stacey King, the rookie, had a great quote after that game. He said, "I'll always remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I combined to score 70 points in one game." Actually, Michael Jordan scored 69 points; Stacey King scored one. I know the feeling!
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Not long ago I was at a conference in a beautiful mountain setting. We had our work all spread out across the tables we were working on. The tables became messier and messier as the day went on. You know how those meetings go. And, after several hours of our, shall we say hot air, the room was ready for some ventilation. So a couple of fellows went over and opened the windows real wide, and oh did that felt good. And then, a big mountain breeze came up and blew through the room. Some people thought the wind was just what we needed. But some of our work started to blow around, and some thought it was suddenly too cool. One man got up and loudly slammed those windows shut! It seems as if there are always those who want to shut the window when the wind is starting to blow.
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Some of my favorite moments in our kids growing up years have been story-telling time. Now, we did the obligatory Little Engine That Could and Winnie the Pooh, in which I used all of my weird voices. But my best memories are of the Bible stories. Evidently I don't always communicate all the information very clearly. I remember one time after we told the Bible story about the book of Genesis, I said to my daughter, "And Honey, do you remember who the first Mommy and Daddy were?" And she said, "Yep! Eve and Steve." Okay, good, so much for my Bible teaching. I said, "Do you remember who their boys were?" She said, "Yep! Cain and Mable." There we go again.
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I got to thinking the other day about some of the close calls in my life; those moments that could have been my last, but obviously they weren't. There was the night that a drunk driver totaled our car with all of our family in it, but thank God it didn't total us. I was driving. We could have died; we didn't.
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Well, it's got to be the Christmas season! I keep seeing the UPS trucks going up and down our street like a fleet, and those drivers are busy! They must collapse into bed at night after those long, long hours they work. But their job could be worse. What if they had to shop for all those packages, and buy them, and package them and deliver them? Well, fortunately it's not up to the UPS man to create the package; he's just got to deliver it. It's kind of like you and me.
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Boy, when our family was growing up, if you were planning to take our oldest son somewhere, you'd better have all your details or you may not go. See, he was never a great fan of surprises or mystery rides; that kind of thing. In fact, ever since he was little, he wanted a detailed itinerary before he could feel good about any trip.
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I was in one of those "big box" stores over the weekend - and Santa was strolling the aisles wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. I told my wife, "It was fun to see Santa. I was just a little surprised to see him carrying pepper spray on his belt." (Okay, I made that part up.) But the thought never would have occurred to me, except for that crazy Black Friday and all the headlines. People getting pushed, punched, sprayed, hospitalized, and even shot - all in the frenzy to get some coveted item cheap.
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Our nine-year-old granddaughter says she loves Thanksgiving. Since her daddy is our son and her mommy is Native American, she has a unique perspective on Turkey Day. She tells us she's a Thanksgiving fan because "I'm a Pilgrim and an Indian!"
