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March 18, 2019

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My wife, like many women, was like "wonder woman" when it came to rescuing clothes that seemed to be ruined by a big stain. Like our sons' high school football uniforms. Okay, our colors were blue and white. I said white. The idea was to have those white pants as dirty as possible at the end of the game, of course, to prove that you played hard. But the idea also was to have those pants really white at the beginning of the next game. So, home they came with these pants that seemed terminally stained with dirt and mud and grass stains. Now the only way my very intelligent wife would let them play football was if they agreed to wash their own uniforms. Right, smart lady. But she showed them how to get those stains out with her magic combination of regular detergent and dishwasher detergent. No matter how dirty those things had been, somehow they came out clean. And yes, those stains were all gone.

Thursday, March 14, 2019

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I've had the chance to meet some fascinating people with our Native American outreaches when I go out with our On Eagles' Wings Teams. One of those would have to be Chad. He was raised to actually be the last traditional chief in his tribe and a spiritual shaman. Like many Native Americans over the years, he was sent to a religious boarding school, and in Christ's name he was forced to dress, look and speak like a white man, and punished if he accidentally spoke a word of his own language. The anger that built up in him made him a most unlikely candidate to ever give his heart to the one that he was sure was "the white man's God." Chad actually said he wanted to die, so he went to Vietnam, hoping someone would kill him. He became one of the few good that were good enough to be called a Navy Seal and then he went through the horrors of being a prisoner of war. What a story! When he returned from the war, he became a gang leader in a major city with some 10,000 people in his organization. Stabbed twice, shot three times, and one night he found himself on an operating table with surgeons fighting very long odds to save his life.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

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It was a simple order, "Get dressed." When Mom said it, our five-year-old grandson did what she asked. Moments later, he emerged from his room dressed for the day. That's good. It wasn't until he was undressing that night that Mom noticed a slight anomaly in how he had gotten dressed. He had two pairs of underwear on! When Mom asked him about it, he answered with a bemused look on his face: "Oh, I just put clean underwear on over the dirty underwear." Not good.

Friday, March 8, 2019

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We were on a business trip when my friend Rich found a site that advertised caverns and an Indian artifact museum. An Indian man, with his coal black hair pulled back and a face my friend described as "well-weathered," offered to take Rich on the museum tour which he thought would last about 15 minutes. Nearly two hours later, he had received an incredible history lesson on the Shawnee Nation. The guide said the Shawnee Nation is made up of many different Indian tribes and the Shawnees have "adopted" these people into their nation. And several times he pointed out that once the tribe allows this to happen, the adopted people or person can never speak of their former tribe or nation again!

Monday, March 4, 2019

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So what was the greatest song of the Twentieth Century? That was the question they asked on a major survey that was taken early in the twenty-first century. And the winner: Judy Garland's signature song from The Wizard of Oz believe it or not "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." Let me sing that for you...no, I won't - blessed are the merciful. The tragedy is that Judy Garland herself could never seem to get there. She was an international star at the age of 17 and she remains one of the towering entertainers of the last century. But tragically, her search for health and happiness led her down a road of drug addiction, disappointing relationships, psychiatric hospitals, and a physical collapse. She died of a drug overdose in a London hotel. It's just painfully ironic, huh? The voice that tried to take us "over the rainbow" could never make it there herself.

Thursday, February 28, 2019

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It's never fun when the plane you're flying on hits turbulence, especially if the fellow next to you has like a weak stomach. It's really not fun when an entire airline hits turbulence. Several have over the years, including one of America's largest and one that had been kind of my airline of preference. It was a bit of a shocker to read that their indebtedness had reached such a critical point they were actually considering the protection of bankruptcy to try to recover. Bankruptcy is a word we're hearing way too often. You know? Then I saw the headline that confirmed the seriousness of their situation. Here's what it said: "Airline Seeks Rescue in Bankruptcy."

Monday, February 25, 2019

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If you were a firstborn, or even a second born child, you might not understand this. But if you came after that in your family, you'll be able to empathize with our third and final born child. His frustration probably came to a head every Christmas when I'd pull out the old family movies...most of which he was not in. He's later observed that the number of photographs taken of a child seems to go down exponentially after the firstborn. It's like for every ten pictures of the first child, maybe there's five of the second, and if you're lucky, maybe one picture of the third. I can remember that he would sometimes leave the room for a little while during family movies. I mean, he had been patiently watching his older sister and brother's infant activities. When I'd ask him where he was going, he would reply matter-of-factly, "Call me when there's something I'm in."

Thursday, February 21, 2019

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It's hard to imagine a movie that got rave reviews when there were about 45 minutes during which there was just one man on the screen, and he didn't even talk that whole time! Yeah, Tom Hanks pulled it off a few years ago in his blockbuster movie, "Cast Away." It's the story of the lone survivor of a Federal Express plane crash who ends up totally alone on an island. Well alone, except for his one friend-a volleyball he names Wilson. Tom Hanks' character is on that island, marooned and alone, for four years. He's the castaway.

Monday, February 18, 2019

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A local businessman was in to share with our Ministry Team, and he made a fascinating observation about his family. He's got three children; two are all grown up and in their late 20s. His youngest is just a nine year old girl. He assured us that she wasn't a "mistake." In fact, she was their choice. And he pointed out something the authorities made very clear at the time the adoption went through. There would come a time when he had a major falling out with one of his natural-born children-a time when he would conceivably, as a father, disown that child; even put him out of the will. But not with this girl he was adopting. He was legally committed to never disown her, to never put her out of his will, and to always take care of her. They said, in essence, "When you adopt a child, she's your child forever."

Friday, February 15, 2019

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There's something you may not realize about my past. I spent some time in Alcatraz - about half a day. By the time I got inside that infamous prison in San Francisco Bay, there was nobody home. It was a museum! And it's a fascinating place to tour. I actually took a group of teenagers to Alcatraz one day to record a radio program there. We spent some time in the area that was used for solitary confinement...they even locked up the teenagers in the main cell block. Frankly, though, I'll tell you, it is a dismal, depressing environment, even when it's just a museum. As our tour ended, we were led through a gate and into a scenic area just outside the wall. It was a gorgeous day, and we had a fantastic view of the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the San Francisco skyline. One of the teenagers looked back and mumbled three words, "Only a wall." When I asked what he meant, he said, "Just think, only a wall separated them from all of this!"

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