Tuesday, July 3, 2007

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When I'm speaking for some event, my needs are pretty simple. Just get me a bottle of fresh water, and I'll be able to keep going like the Energizer Bunny. Recently, I realized that I was heading into a speaking session without my trusty bottle of water. Someone directed me to a hospitality room the host had set up for those on the program. I bypassed all the goodies and I reached for the first bottle of water I saw. As I sat on the front row of the auditorium, awaiting my time to go up to the platform, I mindlessly twisted open the cap on the bottle so I could get a swig. Well, much to my surprise and chagrin, the contents immediately began erupting out of the bottle! I hadn't read the label, and I didn't know what was inside until I opened it. It was sparkling water, and it was sparkling all over me!

Friday, June 29, 2007

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We hear millions of words in our life - especially if you spend much time around me or our family. We forget most of the words we hear, except for some that are just too important to forget. Like our baby's first words, or the last words of someone we love, or the words that end up changing our life. Our five-year-old grandson called me one day and said, "Granddad, I stayed up extra late tonight till I could talk to you and tell you what I memorized." It took me a while to recover from what he said, and I'll never forget it.

Friday, June 22, 2007

On the September 11th we'll never forget, she was the last person brought out alive from the rubble of the World Trade Center. Fleeing down the stairs from her office on the 64th floor of the north tower, Genelle Guzman got as far as the thirteenth floor when the building collapsed around her. Suddenly, she was in total darkness, she was buried alive and she was unable to move much of her body. Genelle cried out to God for help. And that help came in the person of a rescuer breaking through the rubble and grabbing her hand. In her darkest moments, Genelle Guzman promised her life to Jesus Christ. Her emotional miracle was the total peace she has had every day since then; a peace that her psychiatrist, who's worked with many nightmare-plagued survivors, simply could not understand. In his book "Breakthrough Prayer," Jim Cymbala quotes Genelle's bottom line on what happened to her as she told it to her amazed psychiatrist. She said, "The tragedy I suffered was something I needed to go through in order to know Him."

Monday, June 11, 2007

When I'm speaking at a youth conference and I show up on the platform with a pie and a can of whipped cream, it seems to make the front row a little nervous. But not to fear - it's only an illustration, not a weapon. I have my pie cut into six slices, and I cover one of those slices with a generous serving of whipped cream. Then the big question to the audience, "How many slices are going to taste like whipped cream?" There's no trick question here. One slice will. Then I spray the whipped cream all over that pie and then there's whipped cream everywhere. And then I repeat the question. This is not hard. Every slice of the pie now will taste like whipped cream. Which, whether you realize it or not, could have a lot to do with how God feels about you as a Christian!

Friday, June 8, 2007

Fasten your seat belt, science fans. These days it seems as if there's a blockbuster discovery almost every day in the rapidly expanding world of science. But few things have amazed me more than some of the recent discoveries coming out of the mapping of human genes, human cells, and the stuff of human life that we call DNA. You've lived in your body so many years you probably don't think much about it. Think about it for a minute. Your body has, according to the most recent research, ten trillion cells. Each of those ten trillion cells contains a strand of DNA that, if you uncoiled it, would be about six feet long. Now, here's what they're telling us. If you were to place each of those ten trillion strands in your body end to end - prepare to have your mind blown now - your DNA would span the solar system! Go take another look in the mirror.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Sylvester Stallone's been in the ring for a lot of rounds. Even though he's hit the big 6-0 birthday, he's still doing Rocky - Rocky 6 this time. It's being called, "Rocky's final round." Sylvester Stallone is one of the millions of Baby Boomers who have hit a challenge for which some have not been prepared. It's called aging. I was intrigued with what Sylvester Stallone had to say about people he knows. He said, "You see billionaires who have everything, yet inside they're still the same lonely, insecure people." You think you've got it all figured out, but then you turn 60 and there's this little hole inside you. You realize we're always going to be somewhat half full - or are we.

Monday, May 7, 2007

This grandparent thing can be an expensive proposition. Without grandchildren, you can walk past hundreds of cute toys and never miss a step. But when you have a grandchild, you keep seeing your grandchild's name on those toys. Which means you must buy toy with name on it. Right? Well, not all of them, but probably too many of them. We happened to be in a store not long ago with our little one-year-old granddaughter, and I happened to see this great stick horse that I thought would be entertaining for another grandchild, our nearly three-year-old grandson. When you squeeze the ear of the head of this horse, the William Tell Overture (otherwise known to us non-intellectuals as the "Lone Ranger Theme") starts playing, and the horse starts whinnying and snorting, and its nose starts twitching back and forth inside its halter. Well, I walked up to the grocery cart that our one-year-old granddaughter was riding in, and I turned it on for her to see. Her reaction was interesting. She reached in the direction of that twitching steed, wanting me to bring it closer. So I did. But as I brought it near her, she pulled as far back as she could, laying her head against her mother's shoulder. So much for my field test.

Monday, April 30, 2007

One of our team members is quite the woodsman and the hiker, you know. And one foggy Saturday morning, he volunteered to lead a group of men who wanted to go hike to this distinctive rock formation called Hawksbill Crag. He had the book on the trails in that area; a book written by the man considered the expert. My friend kept consulting the book as they went along, pretty confident that they would soon end up at Hawksbill Crag. They ended up lost in a poison ivy patch, and the fog wasn't helping much. As they tried to retrace their steps, they passed a house set back in the woods and they happened to see its owner outside. My friend called to him and asked him if he would help them get "un-lost." That man went above and beyond. He actually came to where they were, helped them make sense of the map that they had, and pointed them right to the trail that got them to their goal. Of course, it turns out he was the man who wrote the book.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

If you want a unique dining experience, you should try my wife's Javanese Dinner sometime. It's actually from a friend's recipe, but man it is a smash hit once people figure it out, that is. I love to see people's reactions when they see all the ingredients she spreads out in bowls on the table. Your first impression is, "What does all this make?" There's rice, there's some chicken, there's a bowl of pineapple, there's celery over there, grated cheese, onions, there's a bowl of coconut, there are almonds, a bowl of crunchy noodles, and there's hot broth. Our guests invariably look a little dubious, but we assure them they'll love it when it's all put together. And they always do! In fact, they always come back for more.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Seattle - Earthquake! As I watched those words appearing on CNN's Breaking News, it really caught my attention in that airport. I expected to see the word "earthquake" associated with a place like California or other parts of the world, but that day it was Seattle - 6.8 on the Richter scale. Now, thankfully, the damage was not nearly as great as it could have been, but the experience was a sobering reminder of how unstable the ground beneath them really is. During the quake, a camera was rolling during a meeting in a conference room, and the video showed the reactions as the realization dawned on each person that his world was suddenly shaking. One moment, it was business as usual. The next moment, everything was moving.