I had to get some vaccinations recently, and it hurt some. But at least I understand that a little pain is better than the big pain of the disease I could get otherwise. But when it’s your baby that’s getting the inoculations, that’s tough. The baby is bawling when he gets the shot and he’s looking at you like, “Don’t you love me, mommy and daddy? Why are you letting this happen to me?” If you tried to explain that you’re putting them through this pain because you love them, they wouldn’t understand anyway, but it is because you love them.
Happy Labor Day! It’s a day most of us celebrate by not laboring. But tomorrow, back to work! Maybe to a job you love or maybe to a job you (you fill in the blank). There is a way you can love your job, no matter what.
Hope you have great weather this weekend, because it’s one of the big cookout and picnic times of the year. As noisy as your picnic might be, it’s nothing compared to what may be the strangest picnic in American history. It was 1861…the Civil War had just begun and the Confederate Army was advancing on Washington, D. C. The battle with the Union Army would be joined at a creek in Northern Virginia called Bull Run. Meanwhile, the ladies and gentlemen of Washington left church and headed for a Sunday afternoon picnic on a hill overlooking Bull Run. Incredibly, they were having their picnic as soldiers were dying on the battlefield below.
It’s that “changing seasons” time of the year. About time to start changing clothes; to go through the wardrobe and put away the short sleeves, get out the long sleeves. It won’t be long before it will be time to break out the sweaters. At different seasons, different clothes, right, but same skin.
As I see kids heading off to school these days, I remember the days we were sending off our little Hutchcrafts. Their mother would tell them helpful things like “don’t forget your homework” and “avoid mean dogs.” I’d send them off with two little words, “Go MAD!” The neighbors probably thought I had, but this wasn’t about insanity. It was a challenge to live God’s way when no one else is. It might be what your kids need…or maybe even their parents.
It’s classic Charlie Brown and Lucy. Charlie’s charging down the field to kick the football that Lucy’s holding, and at the last second, Lucy moves the ball and Charlie goes flying. Now, few people know the name of the guy who holds the ball, but he really matters to the kicker.
Folks used to look at the sky and say, “The sun’s revolving around the earth.” They were wrong. Copernicus showed us that the earth revolves around the sun, and we should be glad. The other way around…we’d all be dead!
I was a mess the night they took me to the hospital because I’d passed out from dehydration. See, I’m not the hospital type, and I let it show with my stinky attitude in E. R. When this hard core nurse said they had to admit me, let’s just say I’m not proud of how I handled it until my wife said, “I want to remind you, Honey, of something you told me.” Oh, I hate that. I can’t argue with myself. She said, “Don’t forget who you are, and don’t forget why you’re here.” Wakeup call! Well, I had an empty bed in my room, so we set up a Christian bookstore; gave away books and CDs, and spread the Gospel. And the last day I was there, Miss Hardcore stopped by and said, “Some of us were talking, and we’ve figured out why you were here. You were sent here for all us pagans.”
Most people would have called it a dump—a 200,000 square foot old building in a deteriorated urban area, long deserted, most of the windows broken. But one Christian businessman looked at it and saw more than the dump everyone else saw. He saw what could be transformed into an active citywide ministry center. I toured that building recently. It’s the center for feeding and clothing the needy, reaching skaters, reaching hunters, and offices for ministries, all because one man saw, not what it was, but what it could be. That’s exactly what my Jesus has been doing for 2,000 years.
I call it blown diet syndrome. You’re doing really well, shedding some pounds. Then you’re out with your friends and you take “one French fry”, and you go, “Oh no! Well, I might as well eat all the fries.” “Oh, no, no! I ate all the French fries. I’ve really blown it! I might as well have a shake to wash it down. Hey, how about a pizza later on?” Next day, “Hey, I really blew it! Oh, what’s the use? I might as well hit the Chinese buffet today.” It’s crazy. Just because you messed up once doesn’t mean you have to keep messing up and lose all the ground you gained…or wait. Maybe it’s gain all the ground you’ve lost.
You’ve probably seen Vince and his chamois in those ever-present TV commercials. He’s the 50s-type guy who pitches those little cloths that can soak up a small flood. And you know they can, because he demonstrates their absorbency by making various puddles disappear. Then they give the number to call.
We’ve had our dishwasher for a while now, but Mr. Observant here just noticed a cool little feature that’s been there all along. So many times someone will open the dishwasher, find it full, and ask that familiar question, “Dirty or clean?” Guess what? There’s a sign on the dishwasher that can tell that answer. Slide it one way, it says “dirty”; slide it the other way, it says “clean.” I think I’m going to start using that little feature.
It seemed like a nice idea—a woman in Israel decided to replace her mother’s old mattress with a brand new one. She moved the new mattress in and threw the old mattress out. The next day it hit her…her mother had hidden her life savings in that old mattress—nearly one million dollars! So mother and daughter spent days picking through Israeli landfills, desperately looking for the fortune that got trashed, and at last report, they’d found nothing but garbage.
My Dad loved to fish, and he always made a big deal about having the right bait—fresh minnows, the right kind of worms. Two things he never tried. He never just put a bare hook in the water and said, “Here, fishy, fishies.” And even though we all liked pizza a lot, he never tried to catch fish with a slice of pizza on the hook. I’ve never eaten a worm, I don’t ever plan to, but sure enough, that’s what my Dad put on the hook and he caught fish!
My wife didn’t mean to get two of her fingers tightly glue together. She was just was trying to repair some jewelry of hers, using Super Glue. She accidentally got a spot of it on her index finger and the tip of her thumb, and suddenly, there she was with two fingers stuck together big time.
Three little words that most kids dread and many parents love—back to school. Either way, there’s no doubt summer vacation’s about over and school is back, and that four-word harangue from parents of students across the country is back, “Get your homework done!” Which, by the way, is good advice no matter how long ago you graduated.
I loved the sunsets over Lake Ontario in New York State this summer. God used the setting sun to finger paint those clouds around it so the sky was glowing with a beautiful rainbow of colors. Then something else struck me. It was worth sticking around after the sunset. The sun was gone, but for quite a while afterwards it left behind this glorious afterglow—like some people I’ve known.
Nobody knows who Clark Kent really is, but Clark Kent does. Oh, he’s just a mild-mannered reporter to the people around him. But he’s got a super identity, and that’s who he really is. Sort of like me and maybe you.
He was one of my boyhood heroes—Davy Crockett, “King of the Wild Frontier.” You know, every episode started with Davy Crockett’s real motto: “Be sure you’re right—then go ahead.” So I put on my coonskin hat and try to do that.
You can tell the Baby Boomers are aging; we’re seeing a lot more hearing aid commercials on TV. They’re making hearing aids less noticeable so people don’t have to feel as self-conscious wearing them. For years, President Ronald Reagan resisted any suggestion that he get a hearing aid. He finally got one, and a reporter asked him about it. “Oh, it’s great! It seems like I can hear everything now…things I never heard before!” And the reporter said, “What kind is it?” President Reagan responded, “About 2:30.”
Homeland security: that’s two words that have become part of our everyday vocabulary since the attacks of September 11. It’s all about taking extraordinary measures to protect potential terrorist targets: transportation, communications, our water supplies. Wait a minute! Think about that last one for a minute. The water for millions of people can come from the same reservoir system. Poison the reservoir and you can infect a lot of lives. That’s why we, of course, have to guard the reservoir.
The first time I landed at LaGuardia Airport in New York, I was told I had just landed on the garbage of New York. A guy explained that the airport, which sits right on a bay, was built on landfill from the city’s trash, which is pretty amazing. Of course, that is what recycling is all about—turning trash into something useful. By the way, nobody does that like God does.
You know, credit cards can be a little self-deceiving. You walk into a store with a hundred dollars, you charge some things you want, and you walk out of the store with the same hundred dollars you walked in with. It feels like you didn’t spend a thing. Oh, but as many have learned the hard way, the bill will come…with interest.
I’m Ron Hutchcraft, and it’s the illusion of getting something without it really costing that is the ace Satan plays to seduce us into choices we’d never fall for otherwise. Just look at how he brought down our original parents, Adam and Eve. The devil had his work cut out for him. I mean, God has given Adam and Eve this wonderful world to live in, with only one limitation. They could eat from every tree but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God said if they did, they would surely die. The devil simply convinces Eve that “you will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4 ). In short, “forget about tomorrow, Eve.”
Most of our sinning is rooted in believing that “forget the future” lie; the temptation that may be pulling on you right now. That’s the pitch; forget about what it will do to your reputation, forget what it will do to your self-respect, your treasured relationships, the people you love, people’s trust in you, your closeness to Jesus. Those things may not seem very important when you really want that thing that’s wrong, but they will be important. The future will come, the calculator is always running, the bill will come – with interest. Like the song says, “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow!”
To help you make life choices with no regrets, that will help you make the impact you want with the rest of your life, I would encourage you to check out our website today. It’s ALifeThatMatters.org.
As we recently grieved the death of a 25-year-old leader of our Native American outreach teams, we were comforted by something he’d written about a year ago. He was reflecting on his love for the Cherokee community and heritage he’d grown up with, including the cemetery in the woods where generations of his family and people were buried…and where he’s buried now. He closed his thoughts with these words, “I often think about the day I’m taken to that cemetery, to lie with my fathers and mothers. As in the Books of the Kings, I live my life so that it may be said of me, ‘He lived his life pleasing as unto the Lord.’” As they read those words at his graveside, I turned to one of his fellow Native team members and I whispered, “Mission accomplished.”
When we were first married, my honey and I often had a TV date to watch one of our favorite TV shows “The Fugitive.” More recently, of course, that was the basis for the blockbuster movie of the same name. The Fugitive, Richard Kimble, was chasing a one-armed man he knew had murdered his wife; Lt. Gerard was chasing Richard Kimble who he thought was the murderer. He always seemed to be one step behind the fugitive. Unlike God, who pursues His fugitives and always catches them.
Jacob and Emma—those are the two most popular baby names in the U.S., and something’s happening out there in Babyland. Actually, a growing number of parents won’t settle for anything less than a unique name for their baby, like some recent celebrity baby names: Apple, Suri, Shiloh. Since 1955, the number of babies given one of the ten most popular names has dropped by nearly two-thirds. One analyst said, “We know the desire for uniqueness is going up.”
I had just started writing a book called, “Peaceful Living in a Stressful World.” Two weeks later, my precious wife was diagnosed with a condition that confined her to bed for seven months. That meant that on top of my heavy ministry responsibilities, I had the privilege of being Mr. Mom, too. So when you write about something, does it happen to you? I should have made my next book, “How to Handle Prosperity.” I looked at the months ahead with my partner sidelined and I wondered “How is this all going to work?” After a month of my new normal, my pastor’s wife asked me how I’d made it for more than a month without my honey’s help. I told her, “I didn’t do a month. I did 35 days.”
You’ve got your Super Glue, your Gorilla Glue, your Elmer’s Glue-All—lots of choices for when things break or fall apart. It’s a little tougher to put things together when it’s like people who are falling apart.
One person in an office comes down with the sickness of the month. Pretty soon, several people in that office have the sickness of the month. One member of the family gets the flu, and before long, every member of the family has the flu. It’s family germs—we’re unintentionally good at passing onto to someone else what’s wrong with us.
I’ll tell you, it gets me every time—watching the commemoration of one of the greatest military victories of modern times—that D-Day landing on some beaches in France on June 6, 1944. Of course, Steven Spielberg tried to capture the heroism and the sacrifice of those men who stormed those land-mined beaches and that blizzard of German bullets. When they recently honored the living and the dead from that day on the 65th anniversary, I heard a historical footnote to that day that underscored the unparalleled heroism of those men. Some of those who were wounded on the beach were later found to be AWOL from the hospital where they were being treated; they wanted to get back to the battle.
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