Tuesday, June 13, 2017

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There's this beautiful spot on the coast of Maine called Bar Harbor, because there's a bar in the harbor. It's a sandbar that's totally exposed at low tide and totally submerged at high tide. The bar goes from the mainland to a little island called, (You'll never guess.) Bar Island. The island's okay, but you will not spend a lot of time there. Although some people do – a lot more time than they had planned to spend. When our family walked across the bar at low tide, we made sure to check that tide chart to see when the tide would be coming back. As we were walking back from the island, the bar was already a little narrower than it had been – the tide had started coming in. Then there were those intelligent tourists who waited a little too long to start back, and there was no way back! Now, you know what? No one has to be stranded on that island. There is a way off, if you take it!

Friday, June 9, 2017

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There were only two words in the headline in USA Today, but most of us understand the urgency of those two words: "Blood needed!" They were talking about an alarming shortage of blood available in blood banks due to a severe winter, a holiday season, and a bad flu season. One spokesman for the Association of Blood Banks said, "If you've had a bad car accident or a couple of gunshot wounds, you're in a world of trouble." I guess so. There is no fact more basic to human life – without the blood you need, you die.

Monday, June 5, 2017

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When I had to go for a new passport, it meant I had to dig out a document that I don't look at very often – my birth certificate. I had to prove to the State Department that I exist! Of course, I have to be careful with my birth certificate – one that's been around that long is about to disintegrate. It's interesting that when you have to produce the most authoritative proof of who you are, what do they ask for? Your birth certificate! And mine, like yours, clearly identifies who you are and exactly when and where you were born. I was a little nervous before I went for my passport because we had just moved and I couldn't find my birth certificate for a little while! That's very bad news!

Friday, June 2, 2017

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It turned out to be one of TV's biggest and most surprising hits of the time -"Touched By an Angel". Actually, CBS almost canceled it after its first season. But they responded to all this mail they got, encouraging them to give it another chance. And with that, it just took off. It was consistently one of the top 10 TV programs in America! It was about three angels who take on human form and assignments from God to bring His hope and His messages into certain people's lives. And in an age when angels had become an intriguing subject for a lot of people, this positive program was really a success. Who would have guessed that it would be a success? Stories of humans whose lives are "touched by an angel"? Of course, there's an even bigger surprise. Did you know that angels can be touched by a human?

Friday, June 1, 2017

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As I sit at my desk, I'm looking at this framed, century-old newspaper on the wall. It's there because I never want to forget the story it tells or the choice it represents. I guess, in short, I'd call it the tale of the three ships.

Everybody knows one of them - the Titanic. The one that 2,200 passengers thought was unsinkable. But that fateful night in the ice fields of the North Atlantic, the Titanic went down and over 1,500 passengers died. Only about 700 survived. Their only hope was a rescue.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

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It was very cold in our house. I was the first one awake that morning, and as I scampered through our personal Arctic I checked the thermometer. It said 50 degrees. I called Mr. Furnace to come. In the meantime, I turned on the kitchen stove, opened the door and sat in front of it to have some personal spiritual time. My kids told me that with my eyes closed it looked like I was praying to the stove! Great! Well, Mr. Furnace came and he finally figured it out. See, the problem was not the thermometer, it was the thermostat. Because the thermometer was just reflecting the temperature. It was the thermostat, which of course, controlled the temperature!

Thursday, May 25, 2017

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There's a bridge in a park not too far from here; they take carriage rides there. It's just a bridge to most folks, but not to our son and daughter-in-law. That will always be a very special spot to them. It's where he asked her to marry him. It's interesting how a plain old piece of geography becomes forever special when something special in your life happens there: the place you were born, or maybe where you had your first date or your first kiss, or where you were married, or where some significant "first" in your life took place. When a certain place is where something important started, it will always be a special place.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

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I'm not sure if it's harder for a baby to have major surgery or adults like us. At least the baby has no idea of what's going on – which might make it easier. We know too much. We worry a lot. Little Jamie? He was not even a year old, but he had to undergo heart surgery; which I associate kind of with older people. Jamie was the nephew of one of our team members, and she was from Australia. The miles made it pretty tough on her, so we all joined her in praying for this little guy so far away. And thankfully, Jamie came through with flying colors. His heart was fixed. It was a tough operation, but it had to be done. You see, Jamie, they said, had a hole in his heart, and you can't just leave it that way!

Monday, May 15, 2017

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My son bought an old Mustang when he was in high school. No, not the kind with four legs. The kind with four wheels. He actually used money he got from selling some of his valuable baseball card collection. Some years later, he wanted to sell it and put the proceeds into the work he was going to be doing with Native Americans. He was home for a little while and that's where the Mustang was, so he put an ad in the paper about it. First day – no calls. Second day – no calls. He wasn't expecting a line at the door exactly, but he thought he'd get a little more response than that. Then he found out why the phone was silent. He checked the ad and found that the newspaper had goofed and published a phone number that was a wrong number. But what a difference that one little number made! When we dialed the number in the paper, there never was any answer. And since it takes a couple of days to change the error, the wrong number made more encore appearances in the newspaper. You gotta feel bad for some guy who's looking in the paper, sees a car he wants at a price he likes, and dials the magic number that cannot possibly reach the person who has what he's interested in.

Friday, May 12, 2017

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At first I thought some apocalyptic event had hit our town. Schools were all empty, wasn't a school bus in sight, lots of people suddenly disappeared. Not to worry. It was just Spring Break.

Of course, for many of America's young people, Spring Break is code for "party like there's no tomorrow, baby." Well, after downing lots of booze and sometimes drugs, your internal censors just go off duty. So a lot of folks come back from break with little memory of some big mistakes. Partying that lasts for a night; regrets and scars that can last a lifetime. Going for "break" and coming back broken.