Talk about a weird winter. Oh, not where I grew up. We didn't just have a white Christmas. We sometimes had a white Thanksgiving, a white Valentine's Day - maybe even a white Easter.

By Ron Hutchcraft

A lot of us have it just about memorized - that Christmas classic, "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Maybe you even hear that familiar piano theme in your mind now. Charlie's efforts to find the meaning of Christmas are, of course, repeatedly frustrated by Lucy's big mouth and Snoopy's garishly decorated doghouse. But then there's Linus on stage, in the spotlight, reciting the story of the first Christmas from the Bible.

They're in all the paintings of the First Thanksgiving. And all the season's grade school plays.

Native Americans. The First Americans.

We invited them to dinner that historic day.

Then we forgot them.

And today their monumental battle to survive is nowhere on our radar. Take the suicides of young Native Americans, for example. Happening again and again in Native communities. With a suicide rate at least three times of the rest of the nation - skyrocketing to seven and ten times greater in some areas.

When my wife Karen was a girl, a lot of people said she looked like Queen Elizabeth. I know this for sure - Karen was always my queen.

Karen and the Queen shared a more important resemblance - a selfless dedication to a life of service to God and others. So Queen Elizabeth was always a little special to us.

I've never been in Uvalde, Texas. But today I feel like a part of my heart is there. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.

How do you get your heart around a massacre of nine- and ten-year-old kids, locked in a classroom? Done by a teenager with a rifle. It's unimaginable, but horrifically real. It's unthinkable, but we can't ignore it.

Unbelievable. It's time for another graduation season! And, wow, has the world changed since I was the one "commencing."

But the commencement ceremony itself? Not so much. Same sweat-a-lot robes. Same funny, flat hats with that annoying tassel. And the same lofty "we will change the world...follow your dream" speeches. Inspired by the view from the top of Mount High School.

Sadly, many will look back later from the Valley of Reality and ask, "Whatever happened to those graduation dreams?"

I've handled my share of bills in my life. But the one from the orthodontist was the best bill I ever got.

By Ron Hutchcraft

Lately, the world seems to be continually changing. War. Inflation. Pandemic. Economy. Nuclear. Future uncertainty. As followers of Jesus, how should we respond? How can we be like the men of Issachar, "who understood the times and knew what (they) should do?" (1 Chronicles 12:32) Here are six bold steps to navigate uncertain times.

A little girl's father was the captain of an ocean liner that sailed between London and New York. On one voyage across the north Atlantic, a major storm surprised him and was really blowing that ship around. Everyone was asleep in their cabins, including the captain's daughter and mother. They were sleeping, until the ship really pitched and the girl was thrown out of her bed. Her mother said, "Are you okay?" And she said, "Yes, I'm okay." Her mom asked, "Are you afraid?" To which the girl asked, "Is daddy still on deck?" And mom said, "Yes, he is. He's the captain." The girl said, "Then I'm going back to bed. I'm okay. Because daddy's still on deck."

It was Valentine's Day, "long ago and in a galaxy far away" - back in college. The day I risked it all to get the girl I loved.

I couldn't understand why this vivacious brunette named Karen couldn't see how awesome I was. I've since figured out why, since I wasn't anywhere near as awesome as I thought I was. Knowing if I pushed it, I'd ruin it, I had settled for what we agreed was a "brother-sister relationship." Well, she had settled.