My friend Dan doesn't need glasses anymore because of the power of a laser beam to surgically improve his vision. My wife didn't have to take weeks to recover from a gall bladder operation because a laser beam did the job instead of a painful incision. All the diffused light in the world couldn't do that. But it's amazing what power there is in focused light and energy.
She was one of what’s been called “the lost girls of China”—the babies abandoned by their mothers because of China’s one-child policy. But little Joy was adopted by my friends who went a long way and paid a high price to rescue her from a Chinese orphanage. Well, she’s five now. She’s loving kindergarten. Her daddy was taking her outside to play when, out of nowhere, she said, “Daddy, thank you for picking me.” And then she added, “Thank you for picking me to be your daughter. I love you.”
Roger was approached years ago by his neighbor, Ray, about an investment opportunity—a little fast food business in California for which he was recruiting ground-floor investors; Roger declined. His neighbor was Ray Kroc, and Roger turned down an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of McDonald’s. Well, later another neighbor asked Roger if he’d like to help him get started with an industrial cleaning business. Again, Roger said no. That business became the giant we know today as ServiceMaster.
Roy Harris was waiting for a flight at Chicago's Midway Airport, and he reached for his BlackBerry phone, and the next thing he remembers he was lying in a hospital after a massive heart attack. The first face he saw was Rachael Jacobs, a flight attendant who had seen his distress and called for the defibrillator that ended up saving his life. In the USA Today account he says, "If it hadn't been for Rachael, I wouldn't be alive." Well, she was afraid Harris would die. So she got a cab. She followed the ambulance to the hospital. Ultimately, Roy Harris had quadruple bypass surgery. He's now making speeches about what he calls, "The miracle in Chicago." He says, "I think you're forever connected by a life-saving event. She's a real hero."
They were in a sweat lodge for what they thought would be spiritual enlightenment. Tragically, some of them died. A sweat lodge is a place where many go for what they believe to be a spiritual cleansing—a place many Native followers of Jesus no longer go. But these were non-Native followers of a New Age leader who directed these people into an extended time in the intense steam heat of the sweat lodge and sadly, three of these spiritual seekers died as a result.
