Tuesday, April 11, 2017

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My friend, Nathan, was on the 61st floor of Tower Two that September day when a hijacked jetliner flew into the World Trade Center. I interviewed him for a broadcast, and I was pretty deeply moved by the story Nathan told. He was coming out of the restroom when he remembers seeing a piece of burning paper floating by the window. That was his first hint of the horror that was to follow. As people began to realize they might be in danger, they did what my friend did – they headed for the stairwell. Nathan's account took me right into those stairwells, ultimately jammed with screaming people, through the terror of first the smoke starting to fill the stairwell and then finally the quake when a plane hit their building.

Friday, April 7, 2017

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Seven years of junior high band concerts. Yep, that was the special joy Karen and I had since all three of the Hutchcraft kids were in junior high band. Oh, it wasn't always a supreme musical experience, but hey, it's our kids, right? Let's imagine you have never heard of the brilliant composer Ludwig von Beethoven before. And I say to you, "Beethoven was a genius. His music is some of the most beautiful ever written." You're a little skeptical because you've never heard any of his music, but "I suggest a way you could remedy that. See, the junior high band is having a concert this week, and they're performing Beethoven's 9th Symphony." So you go, and you come back to me and you say, "I thought you said this Beethoven guy was a genius! I just heard his music. It wasn't brilliant!" Now what's the problem here? It isn't Beethoven-it's the way the band played his music. Just because they don't play his music well doesn't mean the man who wrote the music wasn't a genius!

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

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When you hear the word "superstar", you may think of some great athlete or A-list movie star or some television personality - a celebrity. I'm sorry, but I personally think that's a pretty lame use of the word when you hear about the kind of star that astronomers have been discovering. Like the largest known star in the universe! Conventional telescopes had missed it because of vast dust clouds. But the Hubble Space Telescope picked it up. It is (get this) 186 million miles wide and 10 million times brighter than the Sun! That's a superstar. Don't even try to comprehend one star that enormous! Interesting footnote-according to many theories on how stars are formed, a star this large is an impossibility! No, it's not.

Friday, March 31, 2017

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There was a time when single parenting was kind of an exception in America. Not any more - millions of families where it's just a mom or a dad now. There's been a lot of conversation and a lot of articles written...a lot of commentary about the impact of not having a dad who's really being a father to you. A little while back, one of the leading health officers in the United States said, "The greatest issue facing us is fatherlessness." Then Time Magazine commented on women who actually choose to have a fatherless family. Here's what they said: "They are bringing a child into the world with a hole at the center of his life where a father should be."

Friday, March 24, 2017

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Sometimes during pro-football games, the camera focuses on a single player on the sidelines, the guy who just made that great play. And he'll look at the camera and he'll say those two words they almost always say, "Hi Mom!" See, it's just an indication of the debt that a lot of people owe to the love of their mother.

Six-year-old Stephen will owe a debt to his Mom that he can never repay. He was horseback riding with her and with his older brother and sister and they were near this ranching town in western Canada. A cougar ran right in front of Stephen, spooked his horse, and Stephen was thrown to the ground. Well, the cougar immediately pounced on that little boy. And his mother, Cindy, leaped from her horse, grabbed a stick and started hitting that cougar knowing that that cougar would turn his fury on her. Stephen's brother and sister dragged him to safety and then they rode for help as fast as they could. Stephen lived. His mother, Cindy, didn't. She took all the fury of the cougar so the son she loved wouldn't have to.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

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A beard really changes people-especially men. You can make a man look older, scruffier, wiser, or more suspicious. A beard does amazing things. Some wives and girlfriends can't wait for their guy to grow it. Others can't wait for him to shave it. My friend, Lou, spent much of his time clean-shaven. He also spent many of those same years as an alcoholic. They were terrible years for his wife and for his daughters. One day, Lou became so desperate he surrendered the control of his out-of-control life to Jesus Christ. From that moment on, the Savior beat that bottle that had always beaten Lou, and right about then, he started to grow a beard. He actually has had it for several years, but a couple of years ago he decided to shave it one morning. He walked out to his family, and he said, "Hey, what do you think?" His little girl started to cry. She begged her Daddy to grow his beard back. See, the old face made her think of her old Dad. She was afraid the old Dad was back.

Friday, March 17, 2017

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I don't get sick very often, but that one year I did pick up the special flu bug of the year. Which, of course, meant my wife soon followed suit. We believed in sharing everything. Then our friend, Janice, got a similar flu – sick for four or five days. Then her husband got it – sick for four or five days. Then their lucky daughter took her turn – sick for four or five days. Their teenage son was the only one who didn't get it. His mom said he was the one walking around the house with a can of Lysol all the time! You can almost count on it – when one person is infected with a germ, it's probably going to end up infecting the people closest to them.

Monday, March 13, 2017

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Let's do a little word association exercise: First word that comes to your mind when I say this name – Linus? Let me guess – blanket. Well, of course, unless somehow in your life you've missed cartoondom's classic, "Peanuts" and the world of Charlie Brown and his friends. And Linus is the little philosopher of the group, known most of all for his ever-present security blanket. And I mean ever-present. Everywhere this boy goes, he's dragging his precious blanket. Trying to separate him from his blanket is a hopeless cause. It's like, "Who am I without it?"

Friday, March 10, 2017

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When our youngest son was just learning to walk and talk, my wife always knew when I walked in the door from work. She said she would just hear this loud, one-syllable announcement from our son, "DA!" No, not "Daddy"...not "Da-Da," just "DA"! And that's how he would greet me as I walked in. My wife said he actually would go to the door late in the afternoon and begin looking for me. And when I finally arrived-say it with me now-"DA!"

Thursday, March 9, 2017

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Our son was only two years old when Kim, the neighbor girl across the street, broke her leg. On a scale of world disasters, Kim's leg wouldn't move the needle, but on the scale of a 2-year-old, oh, that's serious. Our 5-year-old daughter brought the bad news, so we all stopped right there and we prayed for our friend Kim. We were done, but our son wasn't. All day over and over again he'd go, "Pray for Kim." So, they prayed for Kim. That went on thirty or forty times. It might be the most prayed for broken leg in the history of the neighborhood. Well we got word a couple days later that Kim was doing really well, and we told our son. He pulled his Mom over to a picture of Jesus we had on our kitchen wall, and he pointed to the picture and he just said, "Jesus fix Kim."